


The Worlds of Many

by RogersBz14



Category: Call of Duty, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - Fandom
Genre: Explosions, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I mean Gideon, Men Crying, Military, Original Fiction, and by men, hurt/caring/confused! Mitchell, panicking/worried/concerned/caring! Gideon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-11
Updated: 2015-03-27
Packaged: 2018-03-17 11:05:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 28,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3526898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RogersBz14/pseuds/RogersBz14
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gideon and Mitchell are leading squads to capture a man who is responsible for the abduction of dozens of children over the year. They both are blind-sidded by a sudden change of events that may ultimately destroy both of their worlds permanently.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gideon and his squad face their worst fears when they confront their target.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey ya'll :0)
> 
> I should probably stop writing so much lol I'm on Spring vacation and don't have much work to do, so I decided to write another original story involving my favorite Atlas/Sentinel duo. If you've read my previous work, the themes of hurt!Mitchell/Protective!Gideon are still in place :) 
> 
> Warning: Grammatical/Spelling errors and possibly slight OOC-ness!!
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!

**(October 24, 2062. 11:00 hours)**  
“Alright men listen up!” Commander James Anderson shouted in front of a large group of soldiers. “Alpha,” he addressed, pointing at Gideon, “you’ll lead your squad to our target! We have intel that our suspect is hidden deep within the facility. This man is responsible for the dozens of child abductions this past year and possibly has important information regarding remaining KVA forces. We need him alive at all costs!!” Anderson’s attention shifted to the second group of soldiers standing to his right. “The rest of you will sweep a facility one mile West from where our suspect is! We believe that is the location where some of the children he abducted are being held. Get as many as you can out! If there are any bodies, report to MS Lewis immediately! Both groups need to move swiftly and quietly: we don’t want our suspect to call reinforcements while we sweep both buildings. EVERYBODY READY?”  
“OOH-RAH” the remaining Sentinel squads shouted in unison, signaling that they all heard the mission loud and clear.  
“Good luck, soldiers! Move out!”  
The two groups separated from each other, one group heading East towards their target, Nikolai Johnson, while the other group headed towards an abandoned apartment building where some kids may be held. Gideon, a member of Sentinel Task Force for approximately two years now, was put in charge of the squad that would confront and capture Johnson. His friend and partner, Jack Mitchell, was placed with the other squad heading towards the apartment building. Both men had tons of experience with missions like this one...so they were both in command. Gideon would lead his squad to Johnson while Mitchell would lead his squad to recover the children. 

While Gideon was pretty confident in his leadership abilities, Mitchell was apprehensive about how his squad would turn out while under his command. After all, this was the first time Mitchell was put into any form of leadership position: he always felt responsible for the lives of the people he’s been assigned to protect, but he never felt the weight of being responsible for his fellow soldiers’ and friends’ lives. The pressure was undeniable and daunting, forcing him to constantly reflect on his agreement to lead the squad. He took a deep breath and led his troops West towards the building. He couldn’t afford to mess this up...there were too many lives --lives that he actually cared about-- on the line.

Gideon and his squad came across a worn-down and one story brick building that seemed to stretch out endlessly behind the entrance. Vines and branches wrapped out the outer surface of the building, mirrors were broken, and tiny specks of blood stained the entrance. Johnson was here. Gideon raised his gun upward and leaned his body against the side of the busted door frame. He quietly whispered to his fellow members, whose intercoms connected to each others,   
“We need to be quick and quiet. Move fast and look out for any scanners that could scramble our exo-suits or alert guards. Even though our guns have silencers, we still don’t want to risk alerting anyone: weapons free as a last resort Move out.”  
He began to quickly move forward down the hallway with his squad right on his tail. The endless hallway had no power, sunlight being the only source of light. Glass and rocks crunched underneath his boots and bones crushed when they came in contact with their shoes. The smell was repulsive and unbearable, making all of the soldier’s eyes water. As they made their way towards the end of the hallway, each soldier took a peek either through the broken door frames, cracked glass windows, or slightly open doors. Every time they looked in a room, there were either dead bodies scattered all over the faded blood-stained tiles or unusable equipment like guns, exo-suits, and AST suits. Ignoring his desire to put the pieces together, Gideon led his squad forward toward the last door on their right. He motioned two soldiers to quietly move toward the other side of the door frame, prepared to fire. He grabbed the remaining two soldiers and pulled them so that they would be leaning against the wall right beside him. Gideon closed his eyes and tried to hear if there was any activity happening on the other side: the sounds of keyboard being typed on and calm humming could be heard. He opened his eyes and nodded to all of the soldiers who were ready to sweep the room. He lifted his fingers and began to silently count down, bringing each finger down as the numbers decreased.  
‘Five...four...three...two...one...GO!’

He kicked the door down and pointed his gun directly at a man’s head while the other soldiers quickly followed behind him with their guns pointing in all directions in case someone was hiding out of their original line of view. Satisfied that no other enemies were nearby, Gideon spoke up.  
“Stay there and don’t you fucking move!”   
He reached for a pair of snap cuffs. However, before he could proceed to handcuff him, the man leaped forward, grabbed one of Gideon’s squad members by their collar, and pressed a knife tightly against his throat. All of the soldier’s raised their guns in the man’s direction.  
“Drop the knife. NOW!” Gideon’s voice left no room for compromise.   
Once the man got into better light, the soldiers could see that the man was Johnson himself. His blonde hair, brown eyes, and muscular frame were prominent features that gave him a delicate yet dangerous look to him. Johnson moved forward, his hostage moving with him, and walked towards the council he was sitting at. After a couple of seconds of typing, the almost pitch black room lit up with white glares created by the multiple screens. Gun still firm in his hand, Gideon looked up at the screen and froze: he was watching Mitchell and his squad sweeping the building, children right behind their tail. Johnson knew that they were here. Focusing back on the hostage, Gideon pointed his gun right at Johnson’s brown eyes.  
“Let him go, or we’ll shoot.” They wouldn’t shoot to kill, but they wouldn’t hesitate to use excessive force to disable the man.  
Johnson removed the knife from the soldier’s neck and pushed him back towards Gideon. The commander instantly pulled the hostage behind him and stood protectively in front of him.   
“You’re coming with us.” another Sentinel soldier said.  
Johnson slowly reached in his pocket and pulled out a trigger of some kind. Instantly, all of the sentinel soldiers raised their weapons and aimed it at Johnson.  
“Put the trigger down,” a soldier ordered, “and get on the fucking ground. NOW!”  
Johnson put on a menacing smile, looked up at the soldiers, and quietly said, “As you wish.”

Immediately, Johnson slammed the trigger onto the ground...but not on the safe point. The button on the trigger was pressed against the ground, activating it. Alarmed, Gideon and one other Sentinel soldier fired a shot so that the bullets would hit Johnson’s hand and knee. While Johnson moaned in pain, Gideon’s eyes snapped back towards the lit up screens, which suddenly cut off and left him staring at a static screen. Before he could ask what the hell happened he, as well as the rest of his squad members, heard shouting coming from their intercoms.

“SQUAD TWO-TWO IS DOWN! REPEAT, SQUAD TWO-TWO IS DOWN!! ALL SQUADS RESPOND!”  
Gideon’s world seemed to freeze in icy and dread when the realization hit him.  
‘Squad Two-Two was Mitchell’s squad….’  
“What the fuck happened?!” Thankfully, another Sentinel soldier asked for more information for him. Gideon couldn’t talk at the moment because he was still processing the news.  
“Myself and Grayson were standing outside the apartment complex while the rest of Squad Two-Two went into the building. Next thing we knew, a series of huge explosions came from the multiple locations in building, causing the it to collapse completely! We tried getting in touch with the squad but nobody is responding. We’re about to begin searching for survivors! Mars out!”  
Rage and worry consumed every one of the Sentinel members in Gideon’s squad. Gideon himself felt like his world was beginning to crumble around him.  
‘Half of the Sentinel squad is down. Half of their fellow soldiers are out of action. Their friends could be dead. Mitchell could be dead...’  
He let out a dangerous growl and charged towards Johnson. He threw his gun aside and grabbed the bastard by his shirt and began to punch him. Gideon always thought the term “seeing red” was bullshit and cliche: he’ll have to let go of his beliefs about that saying for now. He was seeing red and black. After a few punches, Gideon leaned down and screamed right at his face,  
“What did you do?! WHAT DID YOU DO?!?!?”  
Johnson smirked, blood slowly trickling down his lips, and said, “You all destroyed my work...I’ll destroy all of your worlds’ ”  
Swallowing, Gideon released the man and slowly walked back away from the monster. After a few tense seconds, Gideon raised his firearm and fired multiple rounds in Johnson’s legs, preventing him from moving. Once he was sure Johnson wouldn’t be able to get up, Gideon turned on his intercom and whispered,  
“We got Johnson. Requesting immediate backup at our location. Most of my squad is enroute to the site. Gideon out.” Once he was done, he directed his attention to his squad, each of their facial expressions revealing thoughts of worry, anger, grief, and heartbreak. Gideon began to bark orders.  
“Two of you will stay here and watch him until more backup arrives to collect him! The rest of you will follow me to the apartment building and help look for our friends. Copy?” Satisfied that everyone nodded, Gideon nodded back and began to run out of the building and towards the destroyed building East of their current location. As he ran, his body began to feel numb: he couldn’t hear the other footsteps behind him, he couldn’t see the branches and rocks underneath his feet, and he couldn’t feel the sweat begin to make its way down his face. His only focus was on helping his other friends...and finding Mitchell: his best friend, fellow soldier, and brother.

‘Please Mitchell.’ he began to mentally chant. ‘Please be okay! Please be safe! Please be alive! Mitchell, PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME!’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Should I continue or should I just stop writing?
> 
> I want to take the opportunity to say THANK YOU to anyone who left comments/kudos/hits on the stories! Your feedback and love really help me with my writing (and inspire me <3) It means so much that you all are not only into the stories, but also are into the characters and story by itself!!! Thanks for the love :D
> 
> Take Care and Party Hard :0)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gideon and his squad arrive to the devastating sight and begin to look for survivors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all :0)
> 
> Here is the next chapter!! I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll leave it at that lol
> 
> Warning: Grammatical/Spelling errors and possibly slight OOC-ness!
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!!!

**(October 24, 2062. 11:40 hours)  
** What would’ve been an hour and fifteen minute journey was now compressed into forty-five minutes. Every soldier on Gideon’s squad, including Gideon himself, we eager to assist the remaining members in Squad Two-Two in their attempts to find survivors of the bomb attack. Forty-five minutes later, Gideon and his squad arrived to a devastating site.

A once two-story apartment complex was now completely crumbled to the ground and now was a heap of rubble, smoke, and bodies. There were some soldiers already searching the endless pile of rubble while multiple bodies were all laid out in a row. Unfortunately, most of the bodies were those of Sentinel soldiers with a few children that must’ve been in the building. Gideon’s first instinct was to search the laid out bodies to inspect the damage...and to see if his friend was part of the dead. He slowly walked over to the bodies and scanned each of them briefly to see if one of those faces belonged to Mitchell. As he was walking by, he took in the gory wounds each soldier obtained (and probably succumbed to). Arms were blown off, burns covered some of their faces until there was nothing left, deep gashes appeared on multiple body parts, and blood seemed to cover each victim, old and young. After walking down to the end of the line, Gideon was relieved to find out that Mitchell wasn’t lying amongst the bodies.  
‘That means he’s still in the rubble’ Gideon thought in horror, ‘in probably WORSE shape than these poor men and women.’  
Swallowing his fear, he made his way over towards the rest of his squad, who were debriefing with Mars and Grayson to go over the plan. Once the two soldiers noticed Gideon approaching them, they dismissed the rest of the squad and walked over to the meet the Commander. They shook his hands and Grayson spoke up.  
“Commander, we sent your troops to help find survivors. The men who had the equipment that could track heat signatures are K.I.A and the equipment we recovered are busted. You willing to help us out?” Gideon nodded so Grayson pressed forward. “We already covered the front of the building but we need you and a couple of your men to cover the far back of the building.”  
Mars spoke up.” Try not to jostle things around too much. Survivors could be buried underneath the rubble and we don’t want to agitate them even further. Just take it slow and call us if you find anyone.”  
“Alright. Thank you gentlemen.” On that note, Gideon took off and made his way towards the now destroyed back of the building.

After a couple of minutes of walking, Gideon found an empty spot and began to climb on top of the rubble in order to dig out possible survivors. The process itself was stressful and slow: he didn’t want cause anymore damage or put anyone buried at risk. Some pieces of rubble had blood covering them while other pieces uncovered watches, toys, or other miscellaneous items that probably belonged to the kids or Sentinel soldiers. He didn’t keep track of how long he was searching the rubble when something to his right shifted, catching his eyes. He slowly made his way towards the shifting rubble and began to remove pieces of concrete and brick away. After a few tense moments, the heads of two kids popped from the rubble. The scene would’ve been comical but considering that the current situation was dire, Gideon couldn’t bring himself to smile. After a few more minutes of removing the rubble, he helped the two kids out from underneath the rubble. To his surprise, they seemed relatively fine and could walk without assistance. One kid had brown eyes while the other had green eyes: both of their eyes contrasting their raven hair. The girl looked about eight years old, while the boy looked no older than five. Gideon slid down the rubble to meet the children, who were standing on the solid ground.  
“Are you two okay?” Gideon kneeled down and his hands were about to reach both of their shoulders. His  eyes where about to scan the children for any serious injuries when suddenly, the little boy instantly hid behind the older girl and buried his head against her leg. Gideon smiled sadly and leaned forward so that he could see the kid better.  
“Easy now,” he gently said, “I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to make sure you don’t have any serious injuries.”  
Gideon slowly extended his hand for the little boy to take, which he did after a few hesitant moments. Gideon sat down, cross-legged, and gently pulled the boy down with him. The little boy was now sitting in Gideon’s lap and unconsciously leaned closer to the soldier, who wrapped one of his arms around the boy to comfort him. He raised his other hand to card its way through the boy’s hair, making sure that the boy didn’t have any bumps underneath the dirty yet silky hair. Satisfied that the boy was okay, he removed his hand from his hair and positioned his head so that he would be able to see the boy’s. The boy’s eyes slowly found Gideon’s and they showed hints of shock, sadness, and confusion.  
“Can you tell me what happened?” Gideon’s voice was quiet and gentle. After a few silent moments, the younger girl spoke up, surprising the Commander.  
“A soldier was leading us out of the building,” she began in a shy voice, “but he stopped us. He said he heard a beeping noise and wanted us to follow him. He led us to a vault, placed us in there, told us to stay put and lock the vault tightly. Before we shut the door, we saw him run away from us and headed into the room where the ticking noise was. We shut the door and waited. A few minutes later, a loud boom occurred and soon we could only hear pieces of the ceiling hit the vault. We only just got out of the vault.”  
Gideon listened intently and smiled. He was glad the two kids managed to survive the explosion and were in a safe place until helped arrived. A question suddenly hit him.  
“Can you tell me anything about the soldier who saved you? What he looked like?”  
“He had blue eyes and brown fluffy hair. His left arm wasn’t...real, and he was about your height.”  
Gideon’s heart dropped: those descriptions sounded exactly like Mitchell’s. Swallowing his fear, he pressed forward.  
“Did the soldier tell you his name?”  
The little boy who was curled up in his lap spoke up, his voice so quiet that Gideon almost missed it.  
“Mitchell.”  
Gideon shut his eyes and swallowed the bile that made its way up his throat. He ran his hand through his short grayish hair and took a deep breath. After a few moments, his emotions finally calmed down and he looked down at the little boy.  
“Can you point where the soldier ran to?”  
The girl and boy looked at each other and pointed to their left, where a huge pile of rubble remained untouched. He nodded and tried to move in order to stand up, but he felt a small pair of hands grab his shirt. He looked down and saw the little boy had grabbed onto his shirt and leaned into his chest. He smiled sadly and wrapped his arms around the shaking figure and pulled him into a gentle hug. After a few moments, Gideon released his hold and gently grabbed the boy’s chin, lifting up his head to he could look at the Commander.  
“Thank you,” he said, “for keeping your friend safe. I need you to do something for me, okay?” To his surprise, the boy nodded. “I need you to take your friend,” he began, directing his head towards the girl, “and walk towards the group of soldiers waiting at the entrance. They’re friends of mine and will take care of you. I want to find the man who saved you, but I need to focus on that task alone. Do you think you can do that?”  
After a few moments, the boy finally nodded and slowly got off of the Commander’s lap. He grabbed his friend’s hand and began to lead her towards the entrance. The girl looked over her shoulder and mouthed a “Thank you” at Gideon, who responded by smiling warmly. Standing up, he climbed on top of the rubble pile, crawled over to where the kids pointed, and began to remove the pieces of rubble.

The entire time, he was horrified at what he would find: he would either find his friend dead or barely alive. Considering that he went right where a bomb set off, there was a small chance that he survived. The tears began to pool in his eyes but he quickly brushed them away, needing to perfectly see what was underneath him. Finally, Gideon removed a piece of rubble and saw a prosthetic arm lying limply across a steel beam. He made quick work of removing the rubble around the arm and kneeled down to inspect it. The arm was completely destroyed: the wires and gadgets that were previously hidden where now shooting out from a huge hole that was right in the center of the arm. Blood drops appeared across the arm and stained the built-in control panel. The blood was wet and still warm: it recently reached the arm. His heart rate began to increase and he found himself removing more pieces of rubble. He eventually uncovered a shoulder, then a chest, and then another (this time, flesh) arm, and finally a head. He gently slide his hand underneath the man’s cheek and pushed the head so that it would be facing upwards. His world froze at the reveal of the man’s face.  
‘Mitchell.’

The first thing that he noticed was how much blood covered his friend’s face. A huge gash appeared on the left side of Mitchell’s head, while deep cuts were placed all over his face. Even the cheek he was currently cupping had a huge and deep slash across it, blood slowly staining his hand. Gideon’s eyes tore from Mitchell’s blood covered face and made their way towards his chest. Specks of dry and flesh blood stained Mitchell’s shirt and made their way down towards his stomach. Gideon followed the trail of blood and noticed a sharp piece of shrapnel embedded in his friend’s right hip. He was about to move his hands towards the shrapnel in order to remove it, but he stopped himself: removing it could cause even more damage. Sighing, his eyes traveled to Mitchell’s right shoulder and arm and swallowed: his right shoulder and lower right arm, including his hand, were burned pretty badly. Gideon swore that he could see bone underneath the burnt flesh. Gideon raised his own free hand and gently ran it through his friend’s hair, which was sticky with fresh blood. He leaned his head forward so that is was inches away from Mitchell’s and closed his eyes.  
“Mitchell,” he quietly begged, “you gotta let me know you’re okay. Please Mitchell!”  
Suddenly, a weak cough broke him out of his thoughts. Gideon’s head shot up and he found himself staring down at the barely open eyes that belonged to Mitchell. His eyes were extremely unfocused and kept sliding from one side to the other. Gideon leaned forward to that he would be in Mitchell’s line of vision and smiled sadly.  
“It’s alright,” he gently cooed, “I’m going to get you out of here, okay? Just stay with me and save your strength.” While he was talking, his thumb on the hand that still cupped his friend’s cheek began to slowly stroke his cheekbone, avoiding the huge slash. Mitchell opened his mouth, small streams of blood trickling down his chin, and took a small and forced breath.  
“I-I can’t-t- f-f-eel m-my l-l-eg-s-s.” Those slurred and chopped words froze Gideon’s world completely. His thumb stopped its stroking and he leaned closer to Mitchell’s face.  
“What?” Mitchell already lost his left arm...he couldn’t lose BOTH of his legs. He looked down and was glad to see two legs still attached to the rest of his body. Another realization hit him hard: Mitchell could be paralyzed.  
“M-my l-l-egs,” Mitchell weakly reiterated, “I-I can’t f-fee-”  
His voice quickly faded and within a few moments, his eyes fluttered closed and his head lolled limply to the side, exposing a new gash on the right side of his face. Gideon’s heart leaped with fear and grief and he gently cupped his friend’s head in both of his hands, ignoring the blood that continued to coat his hands.  
“Mitchell,” he frantically pleaded, “wake up! Mitchell??”   
After not receiving any response, Gideon swore, raised his head, and looked around frantically for help. He would be more than happy to carry his friend out of the rubble and get him to much-needed medical attention, but moving him alone could cause internal bleeding and hurt him even more: Gideon couldn't do this alone. His eyes found two members of Sentinel who were still searching the rubble a good distance away.  
“OI!” he screamed. “HELP!!! I FOUND SOMEONE AND HE NEEDS HELP!!!”  
The soldier’s looked up and saw Gideon kneeling on top of a pile of rubble, his hands gently cradling something. While one of them ran towards Gideon, the other ran in the opposite direction to get medical help.

Satisfied that a soldier was coming towards them, Gideon looked back down at the injured and unconscious figure below him.  
“It’s going to be okay,” he quietly said. “You’re alright...you NEED to be alright! I’ve got you Mitchell. It’ll be okay…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta da???
> 
> I'm not sure how the next chapter will play out, so there MAY be a little time gap between this and the next chapter. I don't want to rush with my work: I want to take as much time that is required to make my stories at least readable.
> 
> Questions/Comments/Concerns/Insults/Thoughts of love? Feel free to write them down :D I love reading them!!
> 
> Take Care and Party Hard :0)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gideon is hit with devastating news that he honestly doesn't know how to react to.
> 
> While taking it in, he comes across the little boy he found a day ago and they have a meaningful conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all!!!
> 
> Thanks for leaving kudos/hits/comments :D It means so much to me that people are still reading my stories, no matter how bad they are!
> 
> Warning: Grammatical/Spelling errors and possibly slight OOC-ness

**(October 24, 2062. 13:00 hours)  
** Total number of soldiers before the operation: Fifty (not including Anderson, two other commanders, and one medic who didn’t travel with the two squads)

Total number of soldiers after the operation: Twenty-Eight

Mitchell’s entire squad got wiped out in the explosions and only three of them (one of them including Mitchell himself) survived but were in critical condition. Because it took Sentinel ten hours to arrive at the destinations, the commanders decided that they needed to find a closer location to get Mitchell and the remaining two survivors immediate medical attention. Thankfully there was a local clinic about four miles from the destroyed apartment and some of the kids who they managed to get out of the building lived in the small community. After informing Sentinel HQ about the situation, every survivor headed towards the town. It was calculated to be a two-hour journey but everyone moved faster and with much more determination to reunite the kids with their folks and to also to give the injured men a chance for survival. The two men who were watching over Johnson were informed about the plan and decided that they would meet them in the town WITH Johnson in a couple of hours: the townspeople had the right to confront the monster who was responsible for the abduction of the kids in person.

An hour and a half later, they were all greeted with horrified, confused, and almost interested faces that belonged to the town folks. There was a brief moment when the townspeople had a stand off with the Sentinel soldiers, but once they saw some kids walking beside the soldiers, they knew that the soldiers weren’t in their town to cause any harm. While the kids ran towards their folks, a couple of townspeople led the soldiers who were carrying the injured three and brought them to a small clinic. Without thinking, Gideon immediately followed the crew that was carrying his friend and devoted all of his focus to the bloody, unconscious, and possibly paralyzed friend lying on a stretcher. He was so focused on the figure below him that he didn’t realize that someone was gently pushing him away from the stretcher.  
“I’m sorry sir,” a young voice said, “we need as much space as possible to work.”  
Gideon’s eyes snapped up and he found himself staring at a young white male who was wearing surgical scrubs. He had brown hair, brown eyes, and looked about twenty-three years old or slightly older. The younger man smiled at Gideon while placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.  
“We’ll let you know if anything happens but until then, maybe you should explore the town or rest with the other soldiers at our inn. I’ll contact the inn when we’re finished looking over them.”  
Gideon wanted to stay by his friend’s side but he knew that he would probably get in the way and cause more harm than good. Nodding, he patted the man’s shoulder and began to head out the door. As he walked out of the building, Gideon took in his surroundings that he missed when they brought Mitchell in the clinic. To his slight dismay, the clinic looked pretty...dull. Sure there were surgical tools and a metal operating table right in the center of the main room, but that seemed to be it. Considering that this was a clinic rather than a five-star hospital, the lack of equipment was understandable. He glanced at the doctors behind him, who seemed like they were getting ready to move on of the soldiers onto the metal table, and walked out of the door and outside.

Gideon took in the town and was slightly disturbed at what he saw. The town looked like No Man’s Land: a lot of buildings were destroyed, falling apart, or decaying. Old car and hoverbike models were parked beside stores and small apartment buildings. The road underneath him was all dirt and rubble and there didn’t seem to be any signs of greenery with the exception of the woods they walked through a couple of minutes ago. Gideon’s eyes found the inn and he headed in that direction. When he went inside the inn, he was genuinely surprised when he saw the young boy he interacted with at the destroyed apartment building. He was afraid that he would startle the kid so he acted as if he didn’t notice him and began to walk towards some members of his squad, who were sitting together in silence. In the corner of his eye, he could see that the boy’s eyes lit up as he walked past him. He sat down next to the soldiers and sighed with exhaustion and frustration.  
“Any news on Mitchell and the others?”  
Not looking up to see who asked the question, Gideon answered, “We just got here. What the fuck do you think?” He winced at how he snapped at the soldier, who was only concerned about his friends. He swallowed and looked up.  
“I’m really sorry,” he said, “I’m just..”  
“Worried?”  
“Yeah” Gideon responded quietly. After a few moments of silence, Gideon spoke up. “You all had a rough day...get some sleep.”  
The soldiers smiled and began to head up towards their rooms, some of them squeezing Gideon’s shoulder on the way. The last shoulder stood right beside Gideon and extended his hand for Gideon to take. Gideon smiled and found himself being catapulted from his seat into a standing position. After a beat, the soldier spoke up.  
“Mitchell will be alright, sir.” Before Gideon could ask what the hell he was talking about, the soldier continued. “I know how much you two have been through and I know what he means to you. We all know what he means to you. If the legends you both told the rest of us about your time in Atlas, then I’m sure he’ll pull through okay.”  
Gideon smiled sadly, patted the man’s shoulder, and headed towards his room with the soldier right behind his heels.

Gideon’s room was located on the second floor of a four-story inn. Once he entered his room, he closed the door and took in his room. His room had a homey vibe to it: it wasn’t too big and the colors didn’t burn his eyes. With the exception of the peach walls and white bathroom, the entire room was covered in a dull pink and light brown. There was a small TV across the bed and a chest right at the foot of the bed. Gideon opened the chest and placed his gun in it, hiding it from the world. He then kicked his boots off, took off his grey sweater and beanie, and lied down on the bed. He moved onto his side that was facing the door in case anyone needed him or decided to surprise him. His eyes felt heavy all of a sudden and, after a couple of seconds, he drifted off to sleep, taking in the calm and peaceful environment.

 **October 24, 2062 (18:45 hours)**  
Gideon woke up to knocking coming from the outside of his door. Yawning, he stretched his muscles and moved to sit at the edge of the bed. Rubbing his neck, he called out, “Come in!”  
The door opened and he was greeted by an elderly woman who didn’t make any move to enter his room.  
“It’s okay,” he said, “I don’t bite.”  
The old lady smiled. “I’m sure you don’t. I wanted to tell you that I got a call from the clinic a-”  
Gideon instantly shot out of the bed and moved to put on his boots, sweater, and beanie. He opened the chest and grabbed his gun, checking to make sure that it was loaded. To his amusement, the woman didn’t seem scared of the gun...she looked like she was used to seeing guns like his all of the time. As if she read his mind, she spoke up.  
“Don’t worry about scaring me,” she said in a soft voice, “I’ve seen plenty of guns through my days.”  
He smiled and began to walk towards the clinic, but not before thanking the lady for notifying him.

He made it to the clinic in a minute and unintentionally pushed the door open with excessive force. When he was in the building, he slammed the door (again, unintentionally) closed and walked over to the main room, where the young doctor was standing beside the metal medical table...that was now holding Mitchell’s damaged frame. Gideon slowly walked over to where his friend was laying down and took in his features. The gashes and cuts on his face didn’t look as serious as they did when he found Mitchell, but they still looked painful and ugly. His forehead was wrapped with white bandages, but they were hidden underneath his brown bangs. Gideon’s eyes moved from his friend’s face to his chest. Mitchell was shirtless and had a wool brown blanket laid over his lower chest. Despite the blanket, Gideon could see that his friend’s chest, right shoulder, and right arm were tightly wrapped in bandages. Mitchell’s prosthetic arm was still attached to his left arm, but the wires and gadgets were gone and were placed on a small table besides the main medical table. Gideon sighed sadly and ghosted his hand over Mitchell’s hair, not wanting to touch the bandages and wounds. He looked up at the young man and nodded his head, ready to hear the bad news and the worst news.

“Okay...ummm”  
“Joe” the man answered politely. “You can call me Joe. Your name is?”  
“Gideon. Nice to formally meet you.” He shook Joe’s hand and braced himself for the news. “So...what’s the deal with him?”  
“He,” he began as he motioned at the soldier lying on the table, “is one strong guy. While most men would usually succumb to wounds like his, he somehow managed to hold on while we were checking over him. Do you want me to go over the injuries from non-threatening to serious? Or from serious to non-threatening?”  
“First one” Gideon instantly answered.  
“Okay. Your friend has lacerations on his face, slight internal bleeding, three cracked ribs, two broken ribs, second-degree burns on his right hand and shoulder, a cracked skull, and a wound caused from, what I’m guessing, shrapnel that hit a semi-vital organ.”  
Closing his eyes, Gideon took in the laundry list of injuries and nodded sadly. After a few moments, he opened his eyes and stared at the doctor. He had one question that needed to be answered that would either make him jump with joy or destroy his world completely.  
“What about his legs?”   
Joe took a deep breath and tried to look Gideon in his eyes...but he couldn’t.  
“We tried to get reactions from his legs from multiple pressure points but a lot of them didn't react at all.”  
“What do yo-”  
“He’s paralyzed from the groin downwards. His upper body, arms, and head reacted when we put pressure on them, but everything else didn’t respond.”  
“Well,” Gideon asked in a heartbreaking voice, “is it permanent?”  
“I don’t know” Joe replied with complete honesty. “There have been cases where people have had more serious injuries than your friend’s and were paralyzed for only a brief amount of time. Others remained paralyzed for the rest of their lives.”  
Gideon looked down at Mitchell and sniffed.  
‘Fuck,’ he thought bitterly, ‘I’m fucking crying now.’  
Before Joe could ask if he was alright, Gideon walked out of the door, slamming the door in the process. He didn’t know where he was walking off to, but he really didn’t care. After a few moments, Gideon plopped down onto someone’s front porch and began to cry.

He couldn’t deal with the idea that Mitchell may never walk again or that he may not be able to fight alongside him. By the time he wiped his eyes and controlled his breathing, he looked up through blurry eyes and saw the young boy from a while ago. The young boy was staring at him with confusion and sadness, and he looked unsure if he wanted to move forward towards the older man. Gideon took in a shaky breath and moved to the side of the porch to give the boy room.  
“It’s okay,” he said in defeat, “I don’t bite.”  
The boy studied the crying man more carefully before moving to sit beside him. He sat down and continued to stare at the man, who didn’t meet his eyes. A couple of seconds later, he wrapped his small arms around Gideon’s stomach and leaned closer to him. This action took Gideon by surprise, causing him to lift his arms up in confusion. After taking a few moments to process what the boy was doing, he smiled sadly and wrapped his arms around the boy. He found himself lifting the kid in his arms and placing him on his lap before wrapping his arms around him again. The younger boy’s hands gripped Gideon’s shirt tightly and he buried his head against the soldier’s chest. He didn’t know how long he was hugging the little boy but, eventually, he released the boy and stared down at him.  
“Thanks kid,” he said, “I really needed a hug right now.”  
The boy’s face lighten up at those words. His small voice spoke up.  
“Why were you crying?”  
Gideon took in a deep breath, not really wanting to revisit the moment he found out his friend could be paralyzed for life, and told the young boy the truth. He didn’t want to lie to the kid who just comforted him...he didn’t deserve it.  
“Remember Mitchell, the man who saved you and your friend?” The younger boy nodded. “He’s hurt pretty badly...and I found out that he may never walk again.”  
The boy was listening to him intently and nodded.  
“Are you and him partners? Like...in love?”  
Gideon gave the boy an amused and slightly shocked look, but then ruffled the boy’s raven hair.  
“No!”  
“Then why were you crying over him? Whenever I see people cry, it’s because they lost someone they loved.”  
“Well,” Gideon said, shifting his body so that he could be at eye level with the boy, “you’re right on some levels. Yes, I do love Mitchell...but not like that. I’ve known him for a very long time and I consider him my brother. He’s like family to me and watching someone you love like family hurting like that is...too much for some people.” The kid looked like he was taking in his words, so Gideon continued. “Look at your friend, the girl I found with you. Do you love her?” The little boy shook his head wildly before sticking his tongue out in disgust. Gideon smiled at the scene and continued. “But you care about her, right? You love being around her and you feel like you have a close relationship with her, right?” The boy nodded. “Well, if something horrible were to happen to her, how would you react?”  
The boy unconsciously leaned closer to Gideon at that horrifying thought. Gideon ran his hand through the boy’s hair again.“See? Your love for your family is different and special... as is mine. Copy?"  
The little boy smiled and began to crawl off Gideon’s lap. Once he was standing in front of the man, he extended his hand, mimicking the older man’s actions back at the destroyed building, and waited for the man to take it. Gideon looked at the small hand with confusion but then gently took it in his and stood up. The boy led him onto the porch and towards the door.  
“Do you live here?”  
The boy nodded and said, “You can stay here with us tonight. If you want to…I want to show my family the new member.”  
Gideon felt like he could cry right on the spot, but he stopped himself before nodding.  
“Sure. If your parents don’t mind.”  
“They want to meet the man who save my life.”  
“Mitchell saved your life, kid.”  
“But you got me out of the rubble before anything worse happened. Trust me.”  
Gideon sighed in defeat.  
“Lead the way…”  
“Colin.”  
“Colin” Gideon repeated, memorizing the name.

The boy opened the door and the older man into his house, excited that his parents would now have the chance to meet his comforter, friend, and possibly older brother, for the first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a very fluffy chapter but I wanted Gideon and Colin to have a moment together to reflect. Don't worry, Colin will make another appearance or two :D
> 
> Questions/Comments/Concerns/Insults/Thoughts of love? Feel free to write them down :D
> 
> Take Care and Party Hard :0)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The townspeople and Sentinel Forces finally confront Johnson.  
> However, they're all in for a huge shock that he, as well as a familiar face, cooked up.
> 
> Plus, a drug that could possibly turn things around...for the better!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all :0)
> 
> Here's another chapter!!! WARNING: what happens in Chapter 4 is pretty unrealistic!! Even while I was writing this part, I was like, "Wow, this would NEVER happen in real life." So sorry about the inaccuracy!!!
> 
> Warning: Grammatical/Spelling errors and possibly slight OOC-ness
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!!

**(October 25, 2062. 09:30 hours)**  
Gideon woke in an unfamiliar room that definitely wasn’t the inn's room. Blinking the sleep away, Gideon slowly sat up and took in his surroundings.  
The first thing he realized was that he was sitting on a comfy brown couch that was right in the middle of a medium-sized room. There was a small brown coffee table right where his legs were and a TV right behind it. There were two separate rooms (not including the bathroom on his right) that must’ve belonged to whoever lived here. Running a hand through his short hair, he stood up and looked around to see if anyone was in the what he assumed was, home. His eyes wandered around the room for a while until they landed on a huge crowd of people towards something: he could hear yelling and shouting coming from the crowd. Deciding to investigate, he walked to the front door in order to leave the house. To his amusement, he found his perfectly placed against the wall next to the door and a small note on the door with a key taped to it. Gently removing the note from the door, he looked down and read the illegible handwriting.  
  
“Gidein” it said, “family went out to by food. Mom wants me to tel you to loke the door. Sinscerly, Colin :) .”  
Gideon smiled at the spelling and grammatical errors, grabbed his gun, and left the house, locking the door in the process. He slid right into to the stream of people who were heading towards wherever they were heading. Throughout the entire journey, Gideon’s mind kept switching from the devastating news about Mitchell’s paralysis to the fun moments he had with Colin and his parents. To be perfectly honest, Gideon wasn’t that into kids: he doesn’t have anything against them, it’s just he himself didn’t think he could take care of a kid and provide them with enough love and support. Fucking hell, he was already struggling to take care of grown up men under his command. Colin wasn’t anything special, or at least not in the cliche way. What caught Gideon’s attention with Colin was how willing he was to let the older man comfort him, and how the little kid was willing to comfort the man in return. With the exception of Mitchell, Ilona, and some other Sentinel forces, Gideon never met anyone who returned kindness to either him. He wasn’t expecting his kind gestures to be repaid in any form, but the lack of reassuring communication made his job slightly more difficult. Colin was a breath of fresh air...he was also just flat out adorable at moments. He broke out of his thoughts when he accidentally collided into a woman’s back. He apologized and looked in front of him to see the scene.

Johnson was kneeling in front of the crowd, the blood from where he got shot in the hand and knees still covering him. He had this unreadable look on his face and didn’t seem to be making eye contact with the crowd. He was concealed in the center of a circle created by townspeople, who looked down on him with anger, grief, and disappointment. The two soldiers that Gideon sent to stay (and later escort) Johnson were standing very close to him, their guns lowered but alert in case he tried anything worse. Gideon’s eyes traveled from the soldiers to Colin, who was standing inches away from Johnson’s left side. Instinctively, Gideon moved towards the boy, gently pushing people aside to reach him. Once he reached Colin, he saw the boy’s eyes widen with happiness, prompting him to move towards the soldier. Gideon met him halfway and kneeled down to get to his eye-level. Once Gideon was close enough, he placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and smiled.  
“Hey kid” he said.  
“Hello Gideon!”  
Smiling, Gideon stood up to his full height and directed his attention back to Johnson, whose expression went from unreadable to one of pride and cockiness. After a few moments, the crowd must’ve sensed that he was going to speak, so someone yelled at everyone to quiet down. The moments of silence where extremely tense and everyone could feel it. Suddenly, Johnson cleared his throat.

“Do you all expect me to apologize profusely until I have your forgiveness? Criminals do what they do because they want to...not because they were forced to, but because they were willing to carry out their plans and accept the consequences.”  
‘Ignorant fucktard’ Gideon bitterly thought.  
“Do I regret abducting your kids?” As Johnson said this, he turned his head so that he could directly look at Colin, who backed away and hid behind Gideon’s legs. Gideon put a comforting hand on the boy’s back and pushed him even further behind him, cutting him off from Johnson’s view completely. Johnson noticed this protective gesture and his eyes moved to Gideon’s, who was looking at him threateningly.  
“Do I regret killing half of Sentinel’s squad? Do I regret killing his friend?!”  
Gideon felt his blood boil and he swore he could hear his heart pounding in his chest. This prick was the reason all of these innocent kids, including Colin, suffered a probably traumatic experience. This asshole was the reason Sentinel lost almost half of their army. This monster was the reason his brother is paralyzed, possibly for life. The man managed to break almost everything he held close to him and here he was feeling proud about what he’d done! Gideon was about to move forward and beat the man to death when he felt a small hand wrap around a couple of his fingers. Looking behind him,  he saw that had Colin shyly reached for his hand and decided to hold it. Was it for comfort? Reassurance? Restraint? Gideon didn’t know, but he didn’t care: he didn’t want to act irrationally and create a bigger situation that would endanger Colin, his squad, and the townspeople. Swallowing his rage and grief, he gently squeezed the smaller hand in order to silently tell the boy that he was with him and that he was okay. He looked back up and saw that Johnson’s eyes still trained on him. Gideon just stared right back at him, knowing that the small hand in his was the thing keeping him centered and grounded. Johnson continued.  
“No, I don’t regret anything I’ve done. And I’d be glad to do it again...you all take people for granted: your kids, fellow soldiers, friends, and loved ones. I wanted to show you all what would happen if all of that was taken from you. I wanted to wake you all up from your sleep. I WANT you to know how it feels to lose the person you thought was the most important one in your life. After all, you never appreciate what you love until it’s gone.”

Suddenly he jumped up from where he was kneeling down and pulled another trigger that was completely hidden inside his boot. Everyone, including the soldiers, instinctively backed up. Gideon backed away while keeping Colin right behind him. The once completely sealed circle was now a gap-filled oval. Once everyone was at a semi-good distance, Johnson made super quick work of his binds and stood up (or rather, crouched due to the bullet wounds) and raised the trigger high in the air. All of the Sentinel soldiers raised the gun(s) in their hands, including Gideon, and aimed it at Johnson. Johnson pushed the trigger and all of the battery-powered guns Sentinel soldiers held shut down completely. Gideon tried to open the magazine holder but found that it was sealed shut. He looked up at his fellow soldiers with confusion and slight desperation, and they too had zero luck.  
“This trigger will set off two things. You all just witnessed the first one...you all are about to witness the second.”  
Gideon pushed Colin behind him so that, if anything did go off, he wouldn’t get hit by shrapnel or debris. Colin buried his head against Gideon’s leg and Gideon himself braced for what was about to happen. Suddenly, without a single warning, a single loud gunshot rang out in the distance. The once cocky and alive Johnson was now lying on his side, blood pouring out of a small wound that appeared on both sides of his head. Everyone turned to where the sound came from and everyone looked with shocked facial expressions plastered on their faces. Gideon’s, on the other hand, was was filled with shock, disbelief, worry, confusion, excitement, and slight pride.

Lying face-forward on a dirty wooden porch was Mitchell. In his right and bandaged hand, he was holding a 1911 Colt: a gun that required zero battery power to function. His left arm was lying limply at his side and the bandages that were wrapped around his head now had blotches of red blood in many spots. Mitchell was still shirtless and Gideon could see how much big of strain his actions were causing him, for his breathing was erratic and his body was shaking. His legs were dragged behind him like a puppy being dragged on a leash. Mitchell’s eyes looked more focused than they did when Gideon found him lying in the rubble, but they still moved from one side to the other, as if trying to keep his vision clear. Suddenly, Mitchell’s eyes slide shut and he completely went limp, the gun falling right out of his hand. After taking his friend’s state, Gideon gentle nudged Colin aside and ran towards his fallen friend. He could hear other townsfolk heading towards Mitchell as well, but then members of his squad spoke up.  
“Everyone please get back and give them some space! Please, move along now!”  
Gideon looked at one of his men that as under his command and nodded him a ‘thanks.’ The soldier smiled and nodded back before turning his attention back to the now dispersing crowd. Gideon kneeled down beside Mitchell, carefully rolled him onto his back, slide his arms underneath his friend’s numb legs and burnt shoulders, and, as CAREFULLY as he could, lifted Mitchell into his arms and carried him back to the medical table.

Once he reached the main room, he gently lowered his friend onto the table and reached down to pick the the wool blanket that laid on the floor. He wiped on the dust and dirt and gently placed it over his friend’s bare chest. Satisfied that everything seemed back to normal, he looked down at his friend, whose eyes just fluttered open and automatically locked onto his.  
“Jesus Mitchell,” Gideon quietly scolded, “how the fuck did you manage to crawl from here to the door and shoot the bastard?! Not only did you scare everyone to death but you could’ve agitated your wounds even further!!!! What the fuck were you thinking?!”  
Mitchell didn’t seem to hear his quiet rant and instead, started a new conversation that shut Gideon up.  
“G-Gideon” he weakly mumbled.  
Gideon instantly lightened up and shushed the injured man. He looked around the clinic to see if anyone was in the room. Upset that he couldn’t see anyone, he looked back down at Mitchell.  
“I-I killed J-J-”  
“I told you to stay quiet and save your strength” Gideon gently chided. His hand began to lightly run through Mitchell’s hair to try to lull the Private to sleep.  
“I-I-I just compromised the m-m-mission…”  
“Mitchell” Gideon tried to warn, but his friend pressed forward.  
“I-I got my entire squad k-killed.”  
“Enough, Mitchell” Gideon said with slightly more firmness but still otherwise gentle tone. “Just rest. We’ll talk later, okay? Right now, you need to rest and heal up...”  
“But..”  
“Shhh. We’ve got you mate. The rest of Sentinel and I got your back, okay? Just sleep.”  
Gideon’s gentle tone and actions must’ve reached Mitchell because the Private’s eyes slowly slid close and his breathing evened out. Sighing, Gideon removed his hand from his friends hair and slowly backed away from the medical table. Suddenly, Joe came down from some staircase that Gideon didn’t know existed and ran up to Mitchell.  
“What the hell happened?”  
“I should be asking you the same thing doc! Johnson, the bastard that abducted the children and got the three soldiers injured, went all cryptic on the town, disarmed our guns, and was about to set off something else! Mitchell somehow came to, grabbed a 1911 Colt, slide off the medical table, crawled with ONE hand that is burnt, opened the door, and shot Johnson before passing out!”  
“So it worked then!” Joe’s voice sounded hopeful and happy, confusing the older man.  
“What are you talking about?”  
“Right after you stormed away yesterday, my team and I spent endless hours trying to come up with something that could possibly fix his paralysis. We injected him with our substance and must’ve slept in late...that’s why we missed all of the action outside.”  
“So you’re saying that you may have found something that could heal Mitchell?”  
“We're not entirely sure. Because it was an test drug, we didn’t want to give Mitchell too much in case what we created was fatal. It must’ve worked because there’s no way in hell Mitchell could’ve done all that he did in the state he’s in without any help. However, because it was a small dose, it's hard for us to conclude that it did work.”  
“So...what now?”  
Joe looked down at Mitchell before nodding his head. “Now, we wait until he wakes up and observe the after effects. I’m sure it won’t be anything serious at all, but we need to make sure before we create a bigger and more powerful antidote. You okay with this?”  
Gideon nodded and smiled. “Alright, I’m in. Thanks for taking care of him by the way...I’m pretty sure that if we hadn’t found you in time, he would be...you know.”  
“You don’t need to thank me for anything. Your squad captured and took down the bastard that was responsible for so much worry and pain in our community. If anything, I should be thanking you.”  
Gideon smiled and began to head out of the clinic.  
“Let me know when you feel like Mitchell is about to come to, okay?”  
“Yes sir” Joe replied.  
“Thanks.”

Gideon opened the door and was stunned when he saw Colin standing right in front of the door, his eyes instantly trying to find something else to stare at. Gideon smirked and kneeled down in front of the kid.  
“You spying on us?”  
Colin awkwardly nodded and leaned forward so that he could see Mitchell. Once his eyes found the sleeping man’s form lying on the metal table, he looked at Gideon with a confused and fascinated look.  
“You said he would never walk again.”  
“I said possibly…”  
“How did he get from there to here? He looks hurt…”  
“I have no idea” Gideon lied, not wanting to confuse the boy even further with stories about a possible cure.  
“Do you think he’s Superman?” Gideon’s eyebrows rose with amusement.  
“Possibly...but hey, what would that make me?”  
After a brief pause, Colin replied, “Batman?”  
“Batman? That monotone, rich, and mortal man with no superpowers? Seems kind of dull if you ask me.”  
“Well...you both are very quiet and slightly scary. But you both seem to be nice underneath the mask and work perfectly with Superman. I don’t know…”  
Taking in the compliment, Gideon patted the boy’s shoulders.  
“I guess that’ll work” he fake whined, earning him a smile from Colin. After a moment of silence, Colin spoke up, but this time in a much more worried tone.  
“Is he going to be okay?”  
Gideon looked back at the sleeping soldier and stared at him for a second, trying to come up with an answer that won’t scare the boy or get him too hyped. Coming up with one, Gideon turned back to Colin and smiled sadly.  
“I sure hope so. After all, Superman never stays down for long.”  
Colin looked at him with a confused expression. “Didn’t Doomsday kill Superman?”

Gideon stared at the boy with slight annoyance. Sighing in defeat, he stood up and led the boy out of the clinic. Gideon had the whole day ahead of him, so he might as well spend it outside (at least until Joe contacts him to inform him that Mitchell was about to wake up). Before he shut the door, he looked at his friend one more time and shot him a sad smile. Gideon prayed that the drug would work not only for the sake of Mitchell’s legs and life, but also his own life as well. If Mitchell didn't pull through completely...Gideon was sure he would never be able to function in Sentinel and life the same way ever again without his friend by his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told you that this was unrealistic. I feel like the more I write stories, the crappier they get lol So I'm very sorry about the drop in the already poor quality...I'm trying my hardest to write decent stories but they never come out as good on paper as they do in my head :/
> 
> I think there will be two or three more chapters. I have an idea on where I want this to go, but I'm not sure if it'll fit properly. And like I said before, I don't want to rush with my writing: I like to have the ideas down in my head before I write it out.
> 
> P.S: I LOVE Batman lol Nightwing will always be my favorite, but I just wanted to reiterate that I love DC and Batman...FYI: this part may sound like I'm bashing on him.
> 
> Questions/Comments/Concerns/Insults/Thoughts of love?? Please tell me in the comments :D The more you comment, the more I "improve."
> 
> Take Care and Party Hard


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gideon gets caught up to speed about Sentinel's (lack of) air support, while Mitchell gets caught up on the events following the beginning of the mission.
> 
> Afterwards, Joe tells Gideon some fantastic news...with a catch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all :0)
> 
> Here's another chapter!! I tried to add in explanations as to why Sentinel hasn't rescued the remaining troops yet, so I hope it makes sense!! I also hope the serum's explanation makes sense as well :0)
> 
> Warning: Grammatical/Spelling errors and possibly slight OOC-ness
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!!

**(October 25, 2062. 23:00 hours)  
** While Joe and his team treated the other soldiers in order to pass time until Mitchell woke up, Gideon spent the day with Colin, as well as the rest of Sentinel Force members. After Colin walked him around town to see the debatably decaying buildings, he then proceeded to introduce the Commander to his friends. What amused Gideon was how much pride was in Colin’s voice when he almost bragged about the fact that he had a Commander as a friend. Finally, around the evening, Gideon parted ways and spent the rest of the day with Sentinel. Together, they not only unwounded together, but they also got caught up to speed about what was happening with Sentinel and the lack of air support. Anderson spent the entire day reaching Sentinel HQ and learned a couple of major things: multiple Sentinel bases had been attacked and destroyed by bombs and explosives, Johnson’s place (and apparently army) was much bigger than Sentinel realized, and Sentinel’s main mission at the moment was now to wipe out any remaining men or women whose loyalty was to Johnson. Sentinel managed to hack into one of his computers and discovered that the trigger that he pressed that deactivated all of their guns also informed his followers about his impending death: he knew he was going to die that day...just not in that way. And even if Mitchell didn’t kill Johnson, his death was already planned and Sentinel would still lose their most important man…so that would take off some weight from, what Gideon assumed, Mitchell’s guilty conscious. The day after Johnson pulled the trigger that sent the message was the day his followers responded by destroying one of Sentinel’s main bases in New Baghdad that contained a lot of aircraft, particularly the aircraft that was being prepped and almost ready to take off in order to retrieve the remaining soldiers. Because of this attack, Sentinel now wouldn’t be able to reach them for a while: they not only lacked the proper aircraft, but they also NEEDED to take care of Johnson’s army before anyone else got hurt. After getting informed about the situation as well as simply relax with his squad, Gideon got up and headed back to his small room in the inn. It definitely wasn’t like Colin’s place, but he didn’t want to intrude on their night and bug them. He also wanted to be at the inn in case Joe called him again to inform him that Mitchell woke up. Looking at his watch, he realized that it has been over twelve hours since he and Joe talked about Mitchell waking up. There were moments during the day when he was tempted to check in on his friend himself, but he dismissed those thoughts every time because he wanted to give Joe some space to not only take care of the other two soldiers but to also take care of Mitchell as well. Gideon knew that it would be a while until Mitchell would wake up...but he didn’t expect the wait to be this long. Sighing, he got into the bed and quickly drifted off to sleep, hoping that tomorrow would bring him a better day for both himself and Mitchell.

 **(October 26, 2062. 11:00 hours)  
** It took Mitchell twenty-six hours to wake up, which worried the doctor. While Mitchell was out, Joe and his colleagues treated the remaining two soldiers who were also in bad shape. Thankfully, most of their injuries managed to heal up after two days of complete bed rest without any activities to agitate their injuries further (unlike Mitchell, whose actions put a great strain on his body). So while the drug seemed to have worked the way Joe and his team intended, the fact that it took Mitchell much more than ten hours (his prediction) to wake up frightened everyone. Finally, on the 26th around eleven o’clock, Mitchell finally showed signs of waking up. Joe called Gideon to inform him about Mitchell and was surprised to see the older man burst through the door only one minute later after the call was placed. Gideon walked to the metal table that Mitchell was still lying on and stood by his side, almost impatiently waiting for his friend to wake up. Joe moved to the other side of the table to keep tabs on Mitchell. Finally, after a few silent minutes, Mitchell let out a low and weak groan, slightly turned his head from one side to another, and slowly peeled his eyes open. Once his vision stopped swimming, his eyes landed on Gideon.

“Ugh,” Mitchell moaned, “what happened?”  
“Good to see you too” Gideon sarcastically replied with a smile.  
Mitchell smiled back and continued. “Well?”  
“Well, what’s the last thing you remember?”  
Mitchell closed his eyes in an attempt to draw out the unused memories that have been sitting in his brain for quite some time now. Images flashed before his eyes that gave him snippets of he remembered. After taking in everything he saw, he opened his eyes and looked at Gideon.  
“I only remember bits and pieces. I remember running into two children, a bomb, waking up in piles of rubble with you kneeling next to me, and that’s it.”  
“Really? That’s it?” Mitchell was taken aback by Gideon’s concerned tone.  
“What do you mean by that? Did something happen after th-”  
He was about finish his sentence but his eyes seemed to finally noticed Joe, who he had no introduction to before or during the mission. Mitchell’s eyes then snapped from the young doctor to the unfamiliar ceiling.  
‘I don’t remember this place’ Mitchell thought, beginning to slightly panic.  
He weakly moved his head so that it was completely facing Joe and took in what was behind the doctor. He was in a medium-sized room with surgical tools lying on a metal trolley right beside him. He rolled his head to that his chin was resting on his chest and noticed a separate section of the main room. Two out of the four beds were occupied by men who appeared to be asleep and covered in bandages and a cast or two. Mitchell briefly examined them to the best of his ability and deducted that the men were part of Sentinel.‘The bomb’ Mitchell suddenly thought, worry consuming him. He made a move to get off from the surface he was lying on, but he froze when he realized that both of his legs were almost completely numb: the only thing he could feel on his legs was a barely noticeable tingling sensation. His breathing began to pick up and his vision narrowed so that he could only see his feet. Suddenly, Gideon’s gentle and reassuring voice broke him from his state.“Mitchell, calm down. You need to calm down so I can update you on what’s going on.”  
“I-I can’t move my legs! Why can’t I move my legs? Are those two soldiers from my squad? Where's everyone else?! And where the hell are w-”  
“MITCHELL!” Gideon raised his voice so his friend could hear him. He cupped Mitchell’s neck with both of his hands and forced the man’s head to look directly at him. Once he was sure he had Mitchell’s attention, Gideon shot him a reassuring smile.  
“Mate, I know you’re confused and scared. But I need you to calm down so I can update on what happened while you were out...I also need you to calm down so you don’t agitate your wounds even further.”  
“What the hell is going on?!”  
“Please Mitchell! You need to calm down, okay? For me…”  
That seemed to hit Mitchell because Gideon saw his friend’s face slowly relax and could hear his breathing getting back to normal. After a few moments, Gideon let go of Mitchell’s neck and cleared his throat.  
“Alright Mitchell...do you remember the mission?” A nod was his answer. “Well, Johnson apparently knew we were coming to save the kids. He set up explosives in the apartment complex and waited until your squad was completely in it. When my squad found him, Johnson briefly took one of our soldiers hostage and took out a trigger. He released the soldier and pressed the trigger...which ignited the bombs where your team was. You and two other members of your squad, who are both the men you saw lying on the beds, were the only survivors.” Gideon paused and saw Mitchell’s face quickly melt into one filled grief and guilt. Before Mitchell could anything, Gideon pressed forward. “What happened was unexpected and unfortunately unavoidable. My squad came to your site to assist other soldiers who were trying to find any survivors. I managed to find two kids who told me that you saved their lives by hiding them in a vault: Colin, the little boy, and I are apparently friends now, so that’s a thing...anyhow, after I found them, I uncovered you underneath a huge pile of rubble and…” Gideon closed his eyes at memory of finding Mitchell bloody, barely alive, and paralyzed. He took a deep breath and continued. “We managed to get you and the other two to a small town clinic and you’ve been here since. You’ve been out for quite some time a-”  
“You going to tell him about the serum?” Joe’s eager and unexpected contribution to the conversation surprised Gideon and Mitchell. While Gideon sent Joe a glare, Mitchell looked at the doctor and then back to Gideon with confusion.  
“Serum? What serum?!”  
“Mitchell,” Gideon, nervous about telling Mitchell about his paralysis, began, “when I found you in the rubble...you woke up for a very brief moment and told me that you couldn’t feel your legs. When we brought you here, doc here said that you had very serious injuries..one of them being paralysis.”  
“W-What?” Mitchell sounded broken, stabbing Gideon in the heart.  
“However,” Gideon quickly added, “Joe, the doctor, and his team created a small serum that may cure your paralysis.”  
“You serious?”  
“Yes” Joe said, moving closer to Mitchell to examine him. “While you were out, my team and I think we have created something that could cure your paralysis. It seemed to work yesterday…”  
“Yesterday?”  
Gideon cleared his throat and chimed in. “Yesterday, Johnson was brought into the town so the townspeople could confront him about his actions: some kids who were abducted actually live here. He broke out of his bonds, disabled all of our guns, and was about to set off something else. And then he got shot in the head, killing him instantly.”  
“Who shot him?”  
“...You did.”  
“W-What? You mean I killed our target?? How did I k-”  
“My guess is that Joe gave you the serum while you were out...and it worked. He and I didn’t see you wake up and walk or crawl outside, so I can’t give you an honest answer. However, once Johnson was killed, I turned around and saw you lying on the porch with a 1911 Colt in your right hand. You passed out right after and here we are now.”  
“You’ve been out for over twenty-four since I injected you with the serum” Joe quickly added. “I’m here now to just observe the side-effects of the serum. My team decided to not give you a high dosage because we feared that we may have created something worse and didn’t want to put your already fragile health in greater danger.” After a beat, he continued. “So, how do you feel? And I need you to not bullshit anything!”  
Mitchell took a moment to reflect on how he was feeling before responding.  
“Tired” he answered honestly.  
“Remind me again: you don’t remember killing Johnson?”  
“Uhh, no. Not really.”  
Joe shot Gideon a nervous glance before he continued.  
“But you still remember the mission?”  
“Bits and pieces. All I remember is seeing two kids and waking up underneath rubble.”  
“Fuck me” Gideon quietly said to himself. Mitchell doesn’t remember anything that happened before and after the mission. While that could be because of his head injury, it surprised Gideon that Mitchell didn’t remember waking up and killing Johnson. This could be difficult. He looked down at Mitchell and saw his eyes begin to droop with exhaustion.  
“Mitchell, could yo-”  
“I think he’s done here, Joe” Gideon shot at him, his tone leaving no room for protests. He looked at Mitchell and smiled. “Get some rest Private. You’ve earned it.”  
Mitchell gave him a weak nod before drifting off the sleep, but not before whispering, “Thanks,” to his friend.  
Once Mitchell was completely asleep, Gideon pulled the wool blanket forward to that it completely covered his friend’s chest Looking up at Joe, he could see the doctor heading towards the separate room. After running hand through Mitchell’s hair, Gideon followed the doctor.

The doctor was staring at a piece of paper that had multiple equations and formulas. Gideon peaked through the archway before entering the room. Before he could ask what was going on, Joe asked him a question.  
“Do you want the good news or the bad news?”  
“Didn’t you ask me the same bloody thing two days ago?” No response. “Fine, good news first.”  
“I think the serum worked! It effect was temporary, but if I add another ingredient that will make them permanent, I think Mitchell’s legs can be saved! Thank the fucking man upstairs that we live in 2062!”  
“That’s...great!” Gideon didn’t want to get his hopes up, but this news made him ecstatic. “So..what’s the catch?”  
“The combination of formulas that ended his paralysis contains a couple of drugs and formulas that have been known to cause memory loss and extreme drowsiness. The other formula that will make this solution permanent also contains drugs that have been known to side effects that go along the lines of extreme drowsiness and memory loss. In order for this to work, Mitchell will need a HUGE dose of the serum in order for him to fully recover. That said, if we give him the required amount, there is a huge chance that Mitchell will not only be in a kind of medical-induced coma, but also lose a lot of his memories.”  
Taking in the news, Gideon looked down on the wooden floor. “If what you’re saying is true, what do you think the last thing he’ll remember would be?”  
“I have no idea. Obviously, he won’t remember killing Johnson...but he probably won’t even remember the mission. He may not even remember the last couple of months.”  
“What?”  
“His paralysis is serious,” Joe said in a low voice, “and the only way he’ll be able walk again is with this serum and the proper amount of it. This isn’t going to be easy for him no matter what...so the call is up to you.”  
“The call should be his.”  
“Fine...we’ll wait until he wakes up again and ask him what he wants to happen.”  
Gideon nodded and went back to the main room, dragging a tall steel stool in the process. He set it so that he could sit right beside his friend until he woke up again. He turned around and noticed Joe’s look of confusion.  
“I need to be with him for a bit….if you don’t mind.”  
Joe smiled. “No problem. If he wakes up and gives you an answer, please tell me as soon as possible.”  
“Sure thing doc.”  
“Great. I need to head out for a bit and grab some ingredients and supplies that I’ll need in case he wants to go through with it. I’ll be back soon!” On that note, Joe grabbed his fall coat and went out the door, exiting the clinic. Sighing, Gideon looked at Mitchell’s peaceful yet cut and gash-covered face. Before he could talk to the sleeping man, he heard the door open and saw Colin peeking his head out of the door. Gideon smiled and motioned the boy to come in.

Colin slowly made his way to where his older friend was sitting, eager to see him. However, as the boy got closer to him, he noticed a figure lying on a metal table next to Gideon. Once he reached Gideon, Colin tried to get a better look at who was lying on the table by jumping up and down. He suddenly felt himself being lifted off the ground and now was sitting on Gideon’s lap. He unconsciously leaned closer to the man’s chest while keeping his eyes trained on the man on the table, who he realized was Mitchell. He took in the man’s banged up and pale face and shuddered at how many injuries he had. He wanted to see more of the man’s injuries but a wool blanket blocked everything else from view.  
“Is he dead?” His voice was quiet and concerned (with hints of fascination).  
“No” Gideon automatically responded, his grip on Colin’s stomach briefly tightening at the thought.  
“Why isn’t he awake and better?”  
“His body needs time to rest. He’s just sleeping to give his body a chance to heal.”  
“Oh...do you want me to leave?”  
“You can stay.” Not only did Gideon like this kid’s company, but he wanted Mitchell to meet the kid he saved before his memory could be wiped. He knew Mitchell well enough to know that the kid was a angsty shit: he always blamed himself for things out of his power or control. Mitchell not only hated it when things went horribly wrong, but he also loved learning the lessons that came with the defeats or accidents because they always taught him to be a better leader and person. This was where the problem come in. Would he want to risk losing the memories of the lives, like Colin’s, that he saved and the lessons that came with the experience just to walk? Or would he want to keep everything that came out of this experience, good and bad, but be willing to lose his legs? Once Mitchell woke up, Gideon’s question would be answered.

However, no matter what decision he makes, there's no way in hell he was going on without meeting the kid he saved. Mitchell deserved to know that he was a hero, no matter what he thinks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ta da??
> 
> I planned everything out and I think there will be only two more chapters left :D Don't worry, the story has a happy ending :) Like I said above, I hope everything made sense!!!! 
> 
> I imagined Johnson being a combination of all of the smartest villains in comics/TV/movies: bigger than the protagonists imagined and always twenty steps ahead of everyone else ;)
> 
> Questions/Comments/Concerns/Insults/Thoughts of love??? You know what to do :)
> 
> Take Care and Party Hard :0)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mitchell finally meets Colin, makes a decision, and learns from Gideon about failure and success

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all :0)
> 
> Here is another chapter! I just wanted to say, "THANK YOU," to anyone who viewed the story and/or left kudos/comments! This story, I feel, is my weakest and it means a lot knowing that you all still read my stories <3 Thanks for being with me either since the beginning or recently!!!
> 
> Warning: Grammatical/Spelling errors and possibly slight OOC-ness!
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!!

**(October 26, 2062. 12:00 hours)  
** One hour later, Gideon and Colin were staring the man, lying on the medical table, who was coming to. Both males held their breath for their own reasons: the older male was eager to tell his friend about the serum, while the younger male was excited (and slightly nervous) to talk to the man who saved his life. After a couple of tense moments, blue eyes were revealed and slowly found their way to the two figures sitting on a stool.

Mitchell couldn’t lie, the sight of a little boy sitting on Gideon’s lap was simply adorable. Mitchell has worked with Gideon for five years now and he’s never seen his Captain with kids during that time period: he always assumed that Gideon hated kids and resented them. However, the way he was holding the boy with one of his arms wrapped protectively around the little boy’s belly seemed to change Mitchell’s view of Gideon. The kid, who he just realized was the one he guided to the vault, had a very innocent and gentle look: his brown eyes held so much life and kindness while his small body seemed to have complete control and a sense of calmness. It was a great combination, a rare one in kids his age. Finishing his small reflection of the two sitting on the stool, Mitchell cleared his throat and made an attempt to sit up, only to discover that his left arm was completely useless and that his right hand screamed in pain. He flopped back onto his back with a grunt. Annoyed, Mitchell took a deep breath to control his frustration and then addressed Gideon and the little boy.

“Is this the friend you were talking about?” Mitchell nodded his head to Colin, who straightened his posture.  
Gideon smirked. “Yes sir. Mitchell, I’d like you to meet C-”  
“You saved my life.” Colin’s voice was shy and filled with awe. Mitchell and Gideon almost missed the voice, but Mitchell quickly bounced back.  
“In a way" Mitchell humbly replied. He then asked the kid, "Are you okay?” The little boy nodded, easing Mitchell’s slight worry. “Okay...good.”  
“I'm sorry you got hurt because of me…”  
“What?!” both Gideon and Mitchell asked simultaneously, shocked at the ludicrous statement.  
“When you found me and my friend, you told us to follow you. I didn’t move fast enough! If I had moved when you told me to, you would still be able to walk!” At this point, Colin was crying and burying his head in his tiny hands. Mitchell watched Gideon pull the crying boy against his chest and begin to rock him back and forth, his arms now wrapped around the boy. Mitchell couldn’t stand seeing the boy cry about something he had zero control over, so after Gideon calmed down the boy, he asked the kid to look at him and listen very carefully.  
“What’s your name kid?”  
“Colin” he replied after a sniff.  
“Colin, I want you to listen to me very carefully. Please?” Once he was sure Colin was paying attention, he continued. “What happened back there was not your fault. I repeat, it wasn’t your fault! You and dozens of other kids were abducted and kept in prison-like cells for lord knows how long. When I found you, I remember you were in complete shock, and who could blame you: a man wearing a high-tech suit ordering you to follow him is pretty scary. Plus, as I said before, you already were a victim of traumatic experience. What happened isn’t on you, okay?”  
Colin didn’t looked convinced, so Mitchell tried another approach. To the best of his ability, he used his right hand  to reach for Colin and eventually placed in on the kid’s shoulder. Colin stared at the bandaged hand placed on his shoulder before looking back at the injured man on the table.  
“He’s right,” Gideon chimed in, “what happened back there isn’t on you….or you.” Right when he said the last part, his eyes traveled from Colin’s black hair to Mitchell’s eyes. He saw Mitchell close his eyes in grief and shame, and he could hear Mitchell’s breathing hitch a little bit.  
‘Oh boy,’ Gideon thought, ‘what the fuck do I do now?’  
Gideon gave the boy a small hug before placing him back onto the ground. He kneeled down so that he was now at Colin’s eye-level and put his hand on the kid’s shoulder.  
“Hey Colin,” he gently said, “I need to talk to Mitchell alone, okay? Why don’t you play with your friends for a bit. I’ll see you in a couple of hours...I promise.”  
Colin smiled and nodded his head. He hugged his older friend once more before walking out of the door, shutting it tightly behind him. Gideon could hear his friends behind the door and was happy to hear Colin laughing for a couple of seconds before everything went silent again. Sure that he and Mitchell were alone, he went back to Mitchell and sat back down on the seat. He leaned down and placed Mitchell’s right arm, that was hanging limply over the edge of the table, back onto the table. Sighing, Gideon spoke up.

“Colin seems to like you! I mean, not as much as yours truly, but at least he cares about y-” He stopped when he saw tears slowly make their way down the side of Mitchell’s face and move towards his hair. Gideon closed his eyes and moved closer to his friend to gently wipe the tears away. “Mitchell, you need to stop this.”  
“My entire squad is gone because of me” Mitchell quietly whispered. “And to top it off, our main target is dead because of me! How is this NOT my fault?”  
“You weren’t awake when Anderson updated everyone about Johnson and the mission. Johnson was much more powerful than any of us, including HQ, expected. He not only planned out the attacks way ahead of time, he also planned his death as well as attack on multiple Sentinel bases. He had a huge army and we’re still trying to identify the members and either capture them or kill them. His death isn’t on you, okay? He knew he was going to die the day we brought him to town...we would’ve lost him no matter what. And as for your crew, there was no way in hell you could’ve known about the bombs. They were located on every floor in almost every hallway: even if you notified your crew in time, not all of them would still have been able to make it out. Please Mitchell, I fucking hate seeing you like this...and over something completely out of your control. You gotta believe me when I say that this is not your fault.”  
“It still hurts...the idea of failing your fellow soldiers.”  
“I know Mitchell. God, I know how you feel. Being a Captain is just as bad, if not worse...the lives of others are put in your hands and if one life slips, you feel like you could’ve done something better. That feeling of failure hurts like hell, but once it clears, you realize that some things are completely out of your control.” Mitchell still looked unconvinced. “Plus, you saved a bunch of kid’s lives...including Colin’s! That should give you something to think about… You haven’t hurt anyone mate, you’ve been helping as many as you can and have been successful many times!” Gideon’s voice became more gentler. “Mate, I know you’re hurting right now and believe me when I say it when I wish I could take the pain away. But trust me, soon you’ll be more calm and realize that what happened these past couple of days is not your fault. Copy?”  
Mitchell nodded and shot Gideon a sad smile: it wasn’t much, but it was one step in the direction towards healing. Gideon gave Mitchell a minute to process what he said before he finally addressed the main issue.

“Mitchell, remember the serum Joe was talking about that may save your legs? Well...he believes that he’s found a way cure your paralysis.”  
“Wait, what?!” Gideon could hear the excitement and hope in Mitchell’s voice, which made his job of breaking the news about the consequences a lot harder.  
“Yeah. With just the right dosage, you’ll be able to walk again. But there’s a catch…”  
“Isn’t there always?” Mitchell’s voice now had hints of defeat in it. “So...what’s the catch.”  
“Mitchell,” Gideon began, his voice slightly shaking, “your paralysis it bad and requires a lot of the serum. Doc didn’t tell me exactly how much but based on how he put it, it sounds like you need a lot. The serum contains ingredients and formulas that will fix your paralysis permanently and effectively. However, the same ingredients and formulas have very harmful side effects.”  
“Which are?”  
“Serious drowsiness and memory loss…”  
“You're bullshiting me!”  
“I wish I was...whether you want to take the serum or not is up to you. Either you don’t take it and keep your memories of the past couple of months.”  
“Months?!”  
“Or,” Gideon continued, “you take the serum, lapse into a coma-like state for God knows how long and forget what happened the past couple of months.”  
Mitchell slammed his burnt hand in frustration against the table, not caring that his actions sent huge pain signals across his entire right arm.  
“Fuck, why can’t things be easy for once?” Taking a deep breath, Mitchell came up with an answer.  
“Okay…I’ll take the serum. BUT, before I do so...I need you to do one thing for me. Please.”  
Gideon looked at Mitchell with confusion (as well as happiness because his friend would now be able to fight alongside him again). Mitchell had tears in his eyes that refused to fall. He hated the idea of forgetting about all of the lives he’s ended, as well as saved...he especially hated the thought of not being able to remember Colin again. But he couldn’t bare the thought of not being able to fight alongside Gideon and the rest of Atlas. He couldn’t imagine his life without them! They all have sacrificed too much for his safety and growth...and now he needed to be able to repay them back.  
“Sure mate,” Gideon’s voice replied, breaking Mitchell’s thoughts, “what do you need me to do?”  
Mitchell weakly wiped away the tears. “I need you to write something down for me.”  
  
  
**October 26, 2062 (14:00 hours)**  
Mitchell, now wearing a light long-sleeved t-shirt, was staring at the pretty big IV bag that contained what he assumed was the serum. The sleeve on his flesh arm was rolled up, exposing his veins for the needle. Gideon was sitting right beside his friend, his hand placed on the flesh part of his left arm to provide comfort and reassurance. Joe came into the room carrying two more IV bags that also contained the cure, which slightly worried Gideon: the fact that his friend needed three full bags of the cure shook Gideon in some ways. Joe placed the bags onto the metal trolley and lifted the IV that would supply Mitchell with the cure.  
“You ready?”  
Mitchell nodded. “Thanks doc. For everything.”  
“Like I told Gideon, you saved a lot children. We owe you, not the other way around.”  
Mitchell smiled sadly and closed his eyes, waiting for the sting of the needle to hit him. Once he felt that sting, he turned his head so he could look at Gideon.  
Gideon squeezed his friend’s shoulder and placed his free hand in Mitchell’s hair, not giving ten shits if there was an audience to witness this action. He could tell Mitchell was nervous about this serum and needed to do as much as he could reassure his friend that he would be okay. His eyes never left Mitchell’s as he gently stroked his friend’s hair. Once the first bag was drained, Mitchell’s eyes began to droop and he struggled to remain awake. Gideon smiled and leaned forward in order to whisper into the man’s ear.  
“Everything's going to be fine. Just close your eyes and sleep, okay? I’ll be here when you wake up.”  
“You going to be okay?” By now, all of Mitchell’s sentences were slurred and mumbled.  
“Yeah, I will mate. Close your eyes and go to sleep.”  
Mitchell’s eyes blinked open one last time before sliding down completely, now hiding his blue eyes from the world.  
“I’ll see you soon brother” Gideon whispered to the almost completely asleep man.  
Finally, Mitchell’s body went limp, signaling the beginning of his deep-sleep. Gideon looked up at Joe, who was removing the needle from Mitchell’s arm.  
“I think we can move him to one of the beds now. His wounds seem to be healing properly and moving him won’t cause any damage.”  
“I’m on it” Gideon said, standing and getting ready to carry his friend.  
“Great. I’ll get the next IV ready while you get him.”

Gideon nodded and looked down at his friend. He slid one arm underneath Mitchell’s shoulders and lifted him into a sitting position. He then pushed Mitchell’s upper body against his chest and lowered his shoulder so that it could act as a resting place for his friend’s lolling head. Once everything was situated, Gideon slid his other arm underneath Mitchell’s legs and lifted him off the table and began to carry him towards the empty bed. He slowly carried his friend, making sure that the limp arm that was dangling from Mitchell’s shoulder wouldn’t hit any objects in the process. He also didn’t want to risk agitating his healing wounds, halting his friend’s healing progress. Once he reached the bed, he gently lowered his friend onto the soft surface, lowering his head last onto the white pillow. Thankfully, Joe pulled back the covers ahead of time, so all Gideon had to do now was pulled the light blue comforter over his friend’s chest. Once Mitchell was tucked in, he was about to leave when Joe put a hand on his shoulder.  
“You know there's an extra bed right next to Mitchell’s. If you want to, you could sleep on that one tonight and keep an eye on him. The little kid can come in to visit you whenever he wants, just in case you want company.”  
Gideon smiled and nodded. “That’d be great. Thank you.”  
Joe moved aside to reveal the empty bed that was also next to the two injured soldiers, who were still currently asleep. Gideon pushed his new bed closer to Mitchell’s before taking off his shoes and slipping under the covers, positioning his body so that it was facing Mitchell.  
“Let me know if you need anything.” With that, Joe went upstairs to his room, leaving Gideon with his sleeping friend.

“Goodnight Mitchell” he said in the now silent room. Although it was only two in the afternoon, Gideon could feel sleep calling him and knew that he didn’t have the energy to walk around town again. He closed his eyes and let sleep carry him away.

  
**(November 5, 2062. 09:00 hours)**  
Gideon looked at his watch for the tenth time while he remained seated by his friend’s bedside. It has been over a week since Mitchell was given the huge dosage of the serum that would save his legs. During the wait, Gideon kept himself occupied by talking to Colin, Anderson, and the rest of Sentinel who were still in the town. Some days, members of Sentinel would visit Mitchell, as well as the other recovering soldiers, and wish them well, while other days, it would only be Gideon and Colin with Mitchell. It broke Colin’s heart knowing that his rescuer wouldn’t remember him when he woke up, but Gideon reassured the boy that no matter what happened, Mitchell would still recognize him (to some degree at least). Gideon spent as much time as he could outside and with people, both which would keep his mind off of his friend. But, no matter how hard he tried, his mind  always kept going back to Mitchell and his recovery.

On November 5, 2062, Gideon was stopping by the clinic to check on Mitchell. After a few minutes, he was about to get up and leave when he suddenly heard a weak and low moan coming from Mitchell’s lips. Looking down at the sleeping form on the bed, he noticed that Mitchell’s head began to weakly shift from one side to the other, as if he were trying to shake off the sleep. Gideon instantly pushed his chair closer to the bed and leaned forward so he could get a better look at Mitchell.  
“Come on,” he gently coaxed, “you can do it mate. Let me see those blue eyes, huh?” When Mitchell didn’t seem like he was making any progress, Gideon tried something else. “I’m right here mate. Open your eyes...for me.”  
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Mitchell peeled his eyes open to half-mast and slowly found their way to Gideon’s eager and hope-filled ones. A huge smile appeared on Gideon's face as soon as he saw Mitchell (barely) awake. He lifted up his hand and began to run his fingers through his friend's fluffy brown hair while his thumb began to stroke his forehead, being mindful of the gashes and cuts that still covered his face. .  
“Hey mate,” Gideon softly whispered, “welcome back to the land of the awake.”

Gideon kept his eyes trained on Mitchell and patiently waited for a response. After witnessing Mitchell blink his eyes a couple of times in order to focus, he saw Mitchell look at him with confusion and worry. Finally, Mitchell almost incoherently asked one question that shattered Gideon’s heart and world completely.

“Who are you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger :)
> 
> Don't worry! It'll have a happy ending (I think)!!
> 
> One more chapter and then I'm done!! I don't want to force more original stories so I may take some time off to either come up with more for these two (and actually make the plot more diverse rather than simple hurt!Mitchell and protective!Gideon), or to write stories for other fandoms (I have an idea of how I WISH X-Men Apocalypse would play out).
> 
> Questions/Concerns/Insults/Thoughts of love?? You know what to do :D
> 
> Take Care and Party Hard :0)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gideon and Joe have an important discussion about the deeds they both have done.
> 
> Meanwhile, Colin learns a thing or two about Mitchell and Gideon's partnership.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all :0)
> 
> This chapter turned out to be slightly longer than I anticipated, so I guess there will be ONE more chapter after this one :/ Sorry if the story is dragging or is too long. 
> 
> Warning: Grammatical/Spelling errors and possibly slight OOC-ness
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!!!

**(November 5, 2062. 09:00 hours)**  
“I...I...” Gideon couldn’t get out any words. He was now in full grief mode, a mode that he never visited nearly his entire life.   
Mitchell --his friend, companion, and brother-in-arms-- had no idea who he was. Everything they went through before, during, and after their time with Sentinel was now completely erased. The memories of jumping on buses, escaping a research lab, and destroying a lethal missile launch are now lost forever. Mitchell didn’t remember Joker, Ilona, Knox, Cormack, Jonathan Irons….and fucking hell, Will! He didn’t remember his Captain, the man who's been by his side almost every mission. The man who’s never truly thanked him for all of his hard work and loyalty...the man who would die for him. Everything that made their relationship special and almost indestructible was now gone and would likely never return. These thoughts killed Gideon and he could feel himself begin to crumble.  
“Gideon, who is that?”

Gideon’s eyes widened with shock and confusion before he snapped his head around to see Joe standing right behind him.   
‘He….he wasn’t talking about me. He was talking about Joe!!’  
It took the Captain a good amount of time to process what had just happened and, to be perfectly honest, he almost cried with joy and relief. Instead, he choked out a laugh of relief and pushed his chair as close as he could to Mitchell’s bed.  
“Sorry mate,” Gideon quickly said, “this might hurt.”  
“What are you talking ab-”  
Mitchell’s question was cut when Gideon grabbed his shoulders and pulled him into a tight hug. While Mitchell just sat on the bed confused, Gideon continued to embrace his friend. He buried his head in his friend’s shoulder and let the long sleeved t-shirt and bandages absorb and hide the tears that poured out of his eyes. Without thinking, one of his hands firmly cupped the back of Mitchell’s head, his fingers sneaking their way into brown hair. Although he inwardly flinched when his hand came into contact with a large bump that was buried underneath the brown mop, his grip on Mitchell’s head, as well as the rest of  his body, never faltered. Gideon could feel his body put itself back together and create new energy and hope that hadn’t appeared since the mission began.  
“Oh my god,” Gideon chanted more to himself than Mitchell, “you’re okay. You’re okay Mitchell. I’ve got you mate. I’ve got you.”  
Gideon didn’t care if the other two Sentinel soldiers, as well as Joe,  saw him break down: his world was nearly destroyed these past couple of days, and now everything was (almost) back to normal. He must’ve hugged him a long time because he heard Joe awkwardly clear his throat in order to grab his attention.  
“I’m terribly sorry to interrupt,” the doctor began, “but I need to check Mitchell’s vitals before I ask him a couple of questions.”  
Gideon nodded and slowly released Mitchell from his hug before lowering his friend back onto the bed. Gideon sniffed and stood up from where he was sitting in order to let Joe work. He could see Mitchell’s eyes scan the doctor in a confused and suspicious manner, prompting the doctor to raise his hands in surrender.  
“Who are you? Where the hell am I?”  
“My name is Doctor Joseph Goldstein, but you can call me Joe. You’re in a clinic in a small town just outside of New Mexico and have been here for quite some time. Gideon and I will be more than happy to fill you in on what you missed, but I first need to examine your vitals before we can continue.”  
Mitchell looked like he still didn’t trust Joe. His eyes traveled from Joe to Gideon, who was standing right behind him and leaning against a small, wooden shelf. He nodded at Mitchell and shot him a warm smile, silently telling his nervous (and groggy) friend that everything was okay and that he was right here. Mitchell smiled back and turned his attention back to Joe.  
“You’re the doctor.”  
Joe took out a stethoscope, plessor, and other medical supplies and sat down on the chair that Gideon previously occupied.  
“Just relax Mitchell.”  
“How do you know my name?”  
“Just let the man do his bloody job, mate” Gideon complained, his voice filled with amusement and warmth.  
Mitchell quieted and warily watched Joe examine him. The process was much longer than he, Gideon, and Joe expected, causing the Private to unintentionally drift off at one point. Once Joe finished examining his patient, as well as rewrap or stitch his wounds, he stood up and motioned Gideon to follow him to the private room.

“Well?” Gideon couldn’t keep his eagerness and worry out of his voice.  
“It worked. The serum worked! His legs responded when pressure was applied midway on his groin, calf, and ankle. Their reactions were a bit sluggish, but that is probably because Mitchell hasn’t be able to flex his muscles for over a week and a half.”  
“What about his memory? I mean, he seemed to at least remember who I am, so I guess that’s a good sign.”  
“In some ways. Based on your reaction back there, it seems like you’ve known him for a very long time and really care about him.” Gideon smiled at himself at the comment. “But that still doesn’t completely answer how much he’s forgotten. He didn’t know who I was, so that could be a slight problem. We’ll ask him about what he remembers, but for now, we let him rest. Poor bastard’s been through hell these past couple of days...I’m surprised by how long he’s been able to hang on for so long with wounds like his.”  
“He’s one tough bastard” Gideon remarked.  
“You can head back to the inn if you want. Mitchell probably won’t wake up for a while and I don’t want you to feel bored.”  
“It’s no problem at all! I’ll be happy to stay to keep an eye on him.”  
Joe smiled and was about to walk out of the room, but Gideon’s gentle hand on his shoulder stopped him.  
“Listen Joe,” he began, “I know that you’ve told me dozens of times that you owed us and that this is no problem. But still, thank you so much for saving his life. I’ve worked with a lot of soldiers and some of them have suffered the same wounds Mitchell had...and they always succumbed to their wounds in or out of the battlefield. If we hadn’t gotten him here in time, I know for a fact that he wouldn’t have pulled through the way he is now. I owe you m-”  
“Gideon, please. I can’t stress this enough, what you and the rest of Sentinel have done for our town doesn’t even compare to what I’ve done here. You saved so many lives that day, and possibly even more hadn’t Mitchell killed Johnson. We owe Sentinel so much more than we can begin..but I guess we could start by treating three injured soldiers.”  
Gideon squeezed the man’s shoulder before walking back to the empty bed that he had previously occupied one week ago. Suddenly, a group of Sentinel soldiers burst into the room, startling Gideon and Joe. The soldiers saw Mitchell, as well as the two other healing soldiers, and were about to make their way towards them, when Gideon and Joe shushed them.  
“Gentlemen,” Joe said, “I’m terribly sorry to say this, but I’m afraid that this area is off limits at the moment. Your friends need as much time to heal and I doubt that will happen if you all wake them up from their sleep. As soon as they’re better, you can come in and keep them company.”  
To Joe’s surprise, all of the soldier’s complied with kindness and understanding. They briefly said goodbye to Gideon and wished the remaining soldier’s a quick recovery before leaving the room. Once they all left, Gideon could make out a small figure standing awkwardly and shyly out on the dirt road.  
‘Colin’ Gideon deducted.  
He motioned the boy to come in the clinic quietly. Once Colin reached Gideon, he stared at the man sleeping on the hospital bed.

“Did he wake up?”  
Gideon looked down at the boy and plopped his hand onto the kid’s head. “Yeah he did.”  
“Did he remember me?” Colin’s voice had no hope or happiness in it, like he already knew what the answer was.  
“He only woke up for a short amount of time,” Gideon answered honestly, “so we didn’t really get the chance to ask him how much he remembered.”  
After a moment, Colin asked his friend a question. “What if he forgot you?”  
Gideon let out a brief shudder at the memory of Mitchell asking him (or rather, Joe) who he was. He didn’t want to make the kid feel awful by telling him that Mitchell remembered his name, so Gideon lied.  
“I’m not sure what’d I do...I guess I’ll just have to wait to find out.”  
Gideon moved to lie down on the empty bed, kicking his boots off in the process. He wasn’t tired at all and actually kind of wanted to go outside. But at the same time, he needed to keep his eyes on Mitchell in case he either woke up or if anything happened. Once he was lying down, he saw Colin staring at him. Putting the pieces together, Gideon elevated the small hospital bed into a sitting position and spread his legs apart, creating a hole in the middle of the bed.  
“Come on” he said.  
Colin’s face instantly lit up and he jumped onto the bed and sat in the small circle between his friend’s legs. He untied his shoes and lightly tossed them onto the ground right next to Gideon’s. Once he was done, he leaned backwards so that his back was pressed against Gideon’s chest. The soldier wrapped one arm around the kid’s side, placing his hand on his little belly, while he used his other arm as a pillow underneath his head.  
“How long were you and Mitchell partners?”  
“About five years” Gideon answered, his attention on the ceiling.  
“What did you guys do?”  
“Stuff.”  
“What kind of stuff?”  
“Just...stuff, I guess.”  
“Did you kill people?”  
Without moving his head from where it was resting, Gideon looked at Colin. “Why are you suddenly interested in what we’ve done?”  
“I mean...I was talking to one of your friends and she said you two have done a lot together. Is it true that you guys stopped a missile launch AND killed a guy who wanted to take over the world?!” Colin now sounded excited and fascinated.  
“Yes” Gideon replied.  
“Awesome! What else did you two do?”  
Knowing that he wasn’t going to have any peace and quiet, Gideon sat back up and stared down at the kid.  
“If I tell you, do you promise to stay quiet? And I’m not just talking about your voice volume,” Gideon said as he nodded his head to his sleeping friend, “I don’t want you telling this to your friends, deal?”  
Colin turned around completely and was now sitting cross-legged, facing Gideon.  
“I promise!”  
“Okay,” Gideon sighed, “it all started in South Korea…”

 **(November 6, 2062. 10:00 hours)**  
Mitchell blinked his eyes open and found himself staring at three empty beds that looked identical to the one he was lying on. He slowly sat up and was instantly hit by a wave of nausea that threatened to make him puke his guts out. He closed his eyes in order to let his stomach calm down. Once his stomach stopped doing tricks, he opened his eyes and lifted his bandaged hand with curiosity.  
‘When did I get this?’  
He moved his legs over the side of the mattress and began to stand up, but his legs automatically collapsed and he fell back into a sitting position on the bed. He tried again and he failed. Frustrated now, Mitchell took a deep breath and launched himself from the bed and stumbled like a newborn deer to the metal medical table located a couple of feet away from his bed. He could feel sweat appear on his forehead and his stomach began to flip violently. This time, however, he couldn’t suppress the vomit that swam up through his throat and he bent down towards the ground to vomit. Once he was was done, he straightened up and stumbled towards what he thought was a door. He ended up crashing into the door and heavily leaned against the door.  
‘I can do this’ he silently encouraged himself.  
He took a deep breath and opened the door. He was instantly blinded by sunlight and his weak legs couldn’t support him any more, causing him to crash forward towards whatever surface lied beneath him. To his shock, Mitchell was caught by a strong pair of arms and he felt himself being dragged backwards. He could feel a hard surface underneath his butt, which he assumed was a stool. Without any warnings, he felt one hand cup the side of his neck and another placed on his back, gently rubbing circles right on his spine.  
“Easy now,” a voice said, ‘you’re okay.”  
Gideon. Mitchell opened his eyes and saw that he was sitting in front of his Captain, who was currently kneeling down right in front of him with both of his hands providing him comfort and reassurance. Gathering his breath, Mitchell swallowed a lump that blocked his throat and spoke.

“So, I take it that I missed a lot.”  
“You have no idea” Gideon replied.  
“So what happened then?”  
“What’s the last thing you remember?”  
“Ummm,” Mitchell hesitated, trying to dig up the memories, “I remember… Atlas crumbling and Irons falling. That’s about it.”  
“Okay...that’s a step in the right direction.”  
“So, you never told me what we’re doing here to begin with. Mission gone wrong or something?”  
“You could say that” Gideon replied as the image of bloody Mitchell buried underneath rubble flashed before his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he proceeded to tell the longish tail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter and then this story will be wrapped up!!  
> Thanks to anyone who supported the story these past couple of days!!! No matter how many compliments I receive for this story, I still feel like this is the most forced out, jumbled mess. It means a lot knowing that you all stayed with the story, no matter how bad it is <3
> 
> Questions/Comments/Concerns/Insults/Thoughts of love?? You know what to do :D
> 
> Take Care and Party Hard :0)


	8. Author's Note (Nothing Bad :D)

Hey everyone!!!!

First and foremost, I would LOVE to take this opportunity to say, "THANK YOU!" All of the love, critical feedback, and support shown in ALL of my stories really means the world to me :D Thanks for your patience with late updates as well as tolerance with awful dialogues/plots <3 Your love and support, as I said above, really means a lot to me and I couldn't be more lucky to have written my first stories for you all/this fandom :0)

Second, so I had this dream two nights ago..it may have involved Gideon Emery in some adorable yet slightly weird and confusing way... and it got me thinking about this story. This is where you all come in :D 

I was wondering if you all would either want me to extend the story a little bit more or just end it with the next (and originally last) chapter. No matter what you all want, it won't throw me off in terms or productivity/writing. Please give me you honest opinions and I'll see which preference comes out on top :D

The extension would be as followed: Remember when Johnson pulled the trigger and it not only deactivated everyone's guns but also alerted his army about his death? What I was thinking would happen (if you all wanted the story to extend) is that his army would raid the little town everyone is located in. Gideon, a still healing Mitchell, and the rest of the survivors (as well as townsfolk) would have to fight them off. If Johnson knew he was going to die the day Mitchell shot him, I would assume that he would want the entire Sentinel Force (not just their bases) wiped off the map. When he pulled the trigger, it gave his army his location and now they would be coming after the rest of Sentinel soldiers. Considering that I've hurt Mitchell A LOT, I'm debating if he would get hurt in the fight or not...what do you guys think??

Anywho, that is my idea!!! Remember, honest responses/answers are greatly appreciated and I hope that whatever you all chose in the end, you will not only respect the choice, but also be satisfied with the ending :)

Alrighty, until then, I hope you all are having a great 2015 and I will update the story with the results :D

Take Care and Party Hard :0)  
-RogersBz14

P.S: Gideon, if you EVER come across my stories/dream comment (which I pray doesn't happen), then I'm HORRIBLY sorry :/ Don't worry, nothing graphic happened in the dream, but it was a nice one. *giggles* I'm just going to leave now.


	9. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sentinel Forces are under attack by Johnson's army.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all :0)
> 
> As requested by a lot of you, here is part of the extended story for "The Worlds of Many"! This chapter, as well as the next two, will have some bloody fight scenes, so if you all are squeamish about that stuff, you have been warned :D
> 
> Warning: Grammatical/Spelling errors, blood, and possibly slight OOC-ness!!
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!!!

**(November 6, 2062. 10:15 hours)**  
“...which leads us to where we are now” Gideon concluded.  
Mitchell nodded his head and tried to put the pieces back together. He didn’t realize just how much he had missed, or rather forgotten, and was actually overwhelmed by the emotions that relentlessly attacked him: an entire squad that was under his command was now gone because of hidden bombs, dozens of kids were rescued, and he almost lost his legs. Too many things happened and he couldn’t remember a damn thing.  
“Are you sure you don’t remember anything?”  
Gideon’s anxious voice jolted him back to reality and Mitchell scrunched his brow as if the action would conjure up the lost memories. He sighed with frustration.  
“No. God damnit, I don’t remember a thing and it’s driving me crazy!”  
“Easy Mitchell. Like I said, it’s one of the side effects of the serum.”  
After a few moments of silence, Mitchell raised his voice.  
“So what do we do now?”  
“Now? You are getting some rest while I meet up with Anderson, Grayson, and the others to update them on your condition.”  
“I can walk you know.”  
“You were stumbling around like a drunk newborn deer mate. Hate to break it to you, but just because you’ve got your legs back doesn’t mean that you’re healed up. You still have that shrapnel wound, head injury, and dozens of cuts and bruises on your chest and face,” Gideon said as he pointed to a still healing gash on the side of Mitchell’s forehead. “Just try to get some rest, okay?”  
“Gideon, I need to be there if Anderson is going to update us about Johnson’s army. If what you’ve told me is true, then who’s to say that Johnson hasn’t already sent his army to the very town? I need to stay in the loop of things. Please.”  
Knowing that this battle would go nowhere, Gideon sighed and nodded.  
“Okay. But if I notice you swaying or trying to stay awake, your ass is heading to the nearest bed. Copy?”

Mitchell nodded, trying to push down the waves of nausea that began to attack him again. He stood up on shaky legs and slowly headed towards the inn, Gideon standing right behind him to support him in case he suddenly felt weak. As they were walking, Mitchell looked down at his left arm and noticed that it looked like someone tried to put the pieces back together. There were still open areas that exposed the wires hidden underneath the strong plastic and Mitchell could see tiny blue sparks once in a while make their way underneath the plastic. Gideon noticed Mitchell staring at his arm and answered his friend’s silent question.  
“While you were out, Grayson and I attempted to reconstruct your arm. It isn’t the greatest, but at least it’s usable.”  
“Thanks” Mitchell replied softly and gratefully. He would’ve been louder but he was still in awe by how good his arm still looked and functioned. Sure, there were little glitches and an occasional shock that would travel up his arm, but all of that aside, it was great. He didn’t notice Gideon smiling with relief and happiness behind him. They approached the inn and were to enter the door when suddenly, a group of Sentinel soldiers came bursting through the door, nearly knocking both men off their feet. Regaining their balance, they glanced nervously at each other before pulling one soldier aside.

“What the hell is going on?”  
“We just received news from Kingpin and Ilona back at our HQ. Johnson has a fuck ton of followers approaching this town, armed to the teeth, coming from the North.”  
Mitchell shot Gideon an ‘I told you’ glance, to which Gideon responded by glaring at him, silently ordering his friend to shut up.  
“Do we have an estimated time of arrival?”  
“Anderson did the math and figured that we have around three hours to get ready.” The soldier, who Gideon just realized was Mars, froze and stared at Mitchell for a second. He then said, “Private Mitchell! Good to see you finally up and around! How are you feeling?”  
Mitchell stared at the soldier talking to him, trying to figure out who he was. He must’ve been staring for a while because Gideon spoke for him.  
“He’s fine. Just a little out of it.”  
“Huh” Mars replied, his eyes scanning the Private with concern and slight confusion. “Well, try to take it easy. I’m pretty sure our entire squad didn’t worry over you just so you could get killed. Copy?”  
Mitchell nodded. With that, Mars took off and headed towards the rest of the Sentinel forces. Once Mitchell was sure that Mars was far away, Mitchell looked at Gideon with determination.  
“Alright, I just need to grab my exo suit and gun, and I should be ready in a couple of m-”  
“Mitchell, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”  
“You’ve known me for five years now, so take a guess!”  
“Mitchell, you’re not fighting with us.”  
“Yes I am.”  
“Mitchell,” Gideon said, his voice now filled with anger, “for the last time, no. That’s an order.”  
“Gideon, you heard what Mars said. We need every soldier we’ve got to keep these people safe. I’m not going to sit by and watch everyone fight and possibly get hurt or worse.”  
“You were dying back there, Mitchell! You just woke up and began walk around. You need t-”  
“No. These folks took care of all of us this entire time. I’m not going to sit back and watch everyone fall.”  
“Please Mitchell!! I don’t want this town to fall as well, but I’m more worried about you than anything else.” Gideon’s voice lowered and he looked sadly at Mitchell. “I’ve nearly lost you too many times: hell, I’ve even begun to count the amount of times I’ve nearly lost you. Wanna hear how many times?”  
“Not re-”  
“Four. Four fucking times. May not sound like a lot to you, but to me that’s plenty. I don’t want there to be a fifth…”  
Mitchell sadly stared back at his friend, understanding where he was coming from. He knew himself how many times he’s nearly died and it was a privilege that he somehow managed to pull through. That said, there was no way in hell that he was going to let his best friend, as well as fellow soldiers, fight this battle by themselves. They need as many soldiers available and he wasn’t going to sit this one out, not when the lives of innocent citizens and kids are on the line. making up his mind, he softly spoke to Gideon.  
“I’m sorry. I understand where you are coming from and I really wish I could follow your orders. But...you know what I’m feeling and you know how stubborn and a pain in the ass I can be. I’m fighting for these people and for Sentinel...and for you. Please, you need to trust me!”  
Gideon shot Mitchell a disappointing and slightly heartbreaking look before he walked away from Mitchell, his head hanging low. Mitchell felt guilt creep up and he had to sit down in order to not only stop the world from spinning but to also have a chance to think. He hurt Gideon: that much was clear. But his guilt began to decrease by the millisecond and eventually disappeared altogether. He knew what he was getting himself into and he was ready to accept the consequences. He was going to stand by Sentinel’s side and protect the people who have taken care of them...no matter what the cost.

 **(November 6, 2062. 13:00 hours)**  
Gideon put on his helmet and began to head out of his room in the inn and make his way outside. While he was getting prepared, his frustration and anger with Mitchell never ceased. Why couldn’t the bloody sod do as he’s told?! He’s putting his life in danger for no logical reason and giving everyone who is a part of Sentinel a heart attack. He was about to make his way out of his room when suddenly, he was stopped by a small figure blocking his path and jumping up and down in front of him. He looked down and saw Colin staring at him with is brown puppy eyes. He placed his gun on the bed, making sure that it was a safe distance away from the boy, and kneeled down to speak to the kid. He was surprised however when Colin put his small arms around his neck in an attempt to hug him. Smiling sadly, he wrapped his much longer arms around the small frame and pulled the boy close to his now armor-covered chest.  
“Don’t go” Colin mumbled in the armor.  
“I’m sorry kid, but I have to help my friends. I want to help them so that we can keep you safe. You understand, right?”  
“No” Colin admitted. His eyes were filled with tears and Gideon could feel his heart breaking at the sight. “I don’t want to lose a friend!! I don’t want to lose you…”  
“Aw, Colin.” He pulled the boy closer and felt himself begin to rock the boy back and forth, trying to calm the kid down. He tucked the boy’s head underneath his chin and placed a gentle hand on the back of the boy’s raven hair.  
“It’s okay,” he quietly whispered to the boy, “I’ll be fine. Everything is going to be okay.”  
After a few minutes of whispers of reassurance, Colin pulled his head away from Gideon’s chest and looked back up at him. Accepting Gideon’s decision, he decided to ask a question.  
“What’s going to happen with Mitchell?”  
“The idiot is fighting alongside us” Gideon spat out, still infuriated with his friend’s decision.  
“Why are you letting him fight?”  
“Because he’s a stubborn idiot who doesn’t listen to his Commander.”  
“Why does he want to put himself in danger? He’s hurt, but he doesn’t want to get better?”  
“Because he wants to keep you...all...safe.” Gideon froze at the connection between himself and Mitchell. He felt a pang of guilt slowly make its way through his body and he couldn’t really stop it. He scolded Mitchell for trying to help and keep the town safe. Sure, if anything happened to Mitchell he would lose his fucking mind, but he didn’t really listen as to why his friend wanted to help. Either he didn’t listen or he just didn’t give a shit: both reasons were still bad, as well as slightly selfish. Breaking out of the realization, he looked down at the young boy and ran his hand through the smooth hair. “I’ll be okay. I promise. Now, you need to run back home and stay there, alright? You’ve already been through enough for one lifetime. Okay?”  
Colin nodded and slowly pulled himself away from his older friend. He looked back at friend and was about to head back to his home, when the sound of gunshots filled the air.  
“Shit” Gideon said to himself. He reached for his gun and pulled the boy into his room. “Alright Colin, I need you to listen to me, okay?” After receiving a strong nod, he continued. “The innkeeper said that there was an underground tunnel that would keep you all safe from air bombs. I need you to go with her and stay in the tunnel! Understand?” Another nod. “Great. Where are your parents?”  
“They’re waiting for me downstairs.”  
“Find them and head straight for the tunnel. Do not look back!!! Go!” Colin looked hesitant, so Gideon gently pushed his forehead against the little boy’s and quietly whispered, “I’ll be okay. I promise! I need you to be brave for me and keep your friends and family safe for me, okay?”  
After a moment of hesitation, Colin smiled and nodded quickly. He ran downstairs to his parents, leaving Gideon alone in his room.

Realizing that it wouldn’t be safe to exit the room through the front entrance, Gideon ran to the window and kneeled down to inspect the scene. Men and women by the dozens were slowly making their way into the town. They were all dressed in green and white (and odd combination) and had guns that had the power to create a shit ton of damage. Before he could inspect any further, a bullet whizzed right past the side of his head and struck the wall behind him. He crouched down to dodge more incoming bullets that came flying from the window: every time he tried to fire back, he was instantly greeted by more bullets nearly ripping out his face. Suddenly, he turned around and saw a male soldier hold an huge EM1 Laser Gun and froze.  
‘Fuck me’ he silently cursed.  
Just as he was about to raise his gun and fire at the soldier, whose finger was on the trigger, a spurt of blood came flying from the man’s chest and he instantly dropped on the ground dead. Gideon looked up in confusion and saw Mitchell standing right behind where the soldier was originally standing with a handgun in both of his hands. He couldn’t thank Mitchell, for more bullets soon entered the inn room. Mitchell dropped down and crawled towards his friend, grabbing the EM1 on the way. Once he made his way over to his friend, he wordlessly handed the powerful gun over to Gideon, who took it without question.  
“Here,” Gideon shouted over the rain of bullets, “you’ll need something more powerful than that piece of shit!”  
“To be fair, this piece of shit just saved your ass!”  
“You get the point!”  
Gideon tossed Mitchell the gun that he previously held and nodded at him, confirming that he was ready to fight. He noticed that Mitchell’s eyes were closed and his brow was scrunched up in pain. Before he could ask his friend if he was alright, Mitchell looked at him and smiled.  
“Just a little sore. I’ll be okay! Right now, we need to split up and meet with two squads being led by Grayson and Mars! I’ll head over to Grayson while you go to Mars! Copy?”  
“Where the hell is Mars located?”  
“Last I heard, about two blocks down West of here. Think you can make it?”  
“Of course!” Suddenly, Gideon had an idea. “Where’s Grayson located?”  
“Two blocks SouthWest!”  
“Great! You’re coming with me until I reach Mars. Then we’ll split up! Copy?” Mitchell nodded. “Okay. Move it!”  
Simultaneously, they both stood up and ran as fast as they could down the flight of stairs and into the street. As soon as they made their way onto the street, they were instantly greeted by hundreds of bullets hitting their surroundings. Mitchell grabbed Gideon and pulled him back into the motel.  
“This isn’t going to work” he said while he inspected Gideon, checking to see if he got hit. He noticed blood coming out of his friend’s left arm and looked at Gideon with concern.  
“It’s nothing” he said with complete honesty. “Just a graze. What the fuck do we do now?”  
Mitchell looked around the entrance and remembered that there was a ladder that led the roof of building next to it. He grabbed Gideon and pushed him forward towards the stairs.  
“Up there!”

They both ran as fast as they could to the ladder. Once they were on the roof, Mitchell grabbed the ladder and lifted it up, preventing any soldier who tried to follow them from reaching the rooftop. Gideon quickly crawled to the edge of the roof and began to fire on incoming troops who were making their way towards the entrance of the inn. While he was doing so, Mitchell was fighting a soldier who happened to be planted on the rooftop from the start. He grabbed the wooden ladder and slammed it as hard as he could against the enemy trooper, causing it to shatter into pieces. While the soldier was in a brief daze, Mitchell grabbed a piece of the broken ladder and impaled the soldier in the chest. Satisfied that they were dead, Mitchell crawled back to Gideon and pulled him away from the ledge. Once he was sure Gideon had his attention, Mitchell pointed at the rooftop right next to them.  
“Bright side,” he began, “there’s the rooftop. Downside, it’s kind of a big jump. Think you can manage?”  
“Can you?” Gideon’s voice wasn’t challenging at all. It was instead filled with worry and concern.  
Mitchell nodded and he helped Gideon onto his feet.  
“Go!”

Mitchell ran across rooftop they were currently situated on, jumped, and fell right onto the next roof. His wounds from the bomb attack screamed in agony and almost made Mitchell blackout on the spot. However, he pushed the black dots aside, silenced the pain, and managed to roll so that he was now standing back on his feet. As soon as he stood up, he saw Gideon repeat the same actions. As soon as Gideon was about to stand up again, Mitchell caught him and prevented his friend from face planting into his chest. He straightened Gideon up and looked right at him, his hands never leaving his friend’s arms.  
“Thanks mate” Gideon said.  
Satisfied that Gideon was alright, Mitchell let go and they both began to make their way down the block on the rooftops. Thankfully, the roofs weren’t as spread apart as the first jump, so it became much easier for them to jump across the buildings. Finally, they made it to Gideon’s destination. Once they jumped to the last building, they both ran down the set of stairs that led to where Mars and his group was located.

“Gideon” Mars said, “glad to see you made it! Nice to see you up and around, Mitchell!”  
Mitchell smiled and looked out the window, trying to identify where he was suppose to go.  
“You’re needed across the street and one block down from here” Mars said. “Just run as fast as you can across the street and don’t stop! We’ll cover you.”  
Mitchell nodded and moved to the door, preparing himself for the sprint. Before he ran, he saw Gideon look at him with pride and concern.  
“Try not to die, rookie!”  
Mitchell smirked. “Never was the plan! Be careful yourself!!”  
Gideon nodded, confirming that he’ll carry out his friend’s request.  
“Covering fire at 2 O’Clock!”  
Mitchell took in a deep breath and ran with all of his speed across the road.

To his horror, there were more soldiers than he planned, making the task of dodging bullets a lot more difficult than planned: he still refused to stop running. He was making great time when he looked in front of him and saw a grenade land right in front of him. In a panic, he rolled on the ground away from the explosive device. As soon as the grenade exploded, Mitchell felt pain enter his stomach. He ignored it and crawled as fast as he could to the end of the street, hiding behind a building. Gasping for breath, he looked down and saw that his stomach was bleeding. He lifted up his shirt and saw a small piece of shrapnel embedded in his stomach, a couple of inches away from his other shrapnel wound. He quickly pulled it out and nearly lost balance because of the sudden pain.  
“Fuck” he breathed out.  
Once he was sure he wouldn’t pass out on the spot, he turned his head to the side and saw some soldiers firing into the building Gideon and the others were located in. He raised his own gun and fired a couple of rounds, killing a few soldiers who were coming too close to the building. His actions caught the attention of more soldiers and they turned their guns on him and fired. Mitchell ran away from the soldiers and made his way towards the given location, silently praying that Gideon, as well as his fellow soldiers, would make it out alive after the battle. Once he reached his destination, he stumbled into the building and collapsed on his knees.  
“I’m….here” he gasped.  
To his utter shock, he saw the bodies of dead Sentinel soldiers scattered all across the ground. Blood covered the wooden floor and the walls, making Mitchell gag for a second. Regaining his bearings, he looked through a window and saw a couple of Sentinel troops running away from the building, each of them covered in blood and wounds. He stood up and was about to run towards them, but he was stopped by a huge fist connecting with his nose, causing him to fall flat on his back. Blinking away stars that made their way across his vision, he found himself staring in the eyes of a huge and ripped man.

The man was almost as tall as Yao Ming, as fit as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and as intimidating as The Hulk. As soon as he reached 6’3’’, Mitchell had never met anyone taller than him. Sure, Gideon was around his height, but he wasn’t taller than him! The man had a buzz-cut, preventing the usually raven hair from showing up. He was wearing an exo suit that was covered in fresh blood.  
‘Must be the reason why everyone's dead’ Mitchell silently deducted.  
Before he could evaluate the soldier further, he felt huge hands grab him by the collar of his exo suit and fling him against a wall, causing him to lose his grip on the gun. Stunned by the painful contact his back made against the wall, he tried to reach for his gun. He was surprised (and completely horrified) by how easily the gun snapped in half underneath the man’s boot. He tried to stand up but was instantly greeted by a fist painfully making its way across his cheek, where a slash from the explosion still was. He fell back onto the ground and then was thrown into another wall. This time, Mitchell quickly got back on his feet and took out his knife: it wasn’t much, but at least it was something. He noticed the man taking out a knife as well, a slightly bigger one. Mitchell knew that this could possibly be his last stance, but at least he was going to go out protecting the citizens of this town, Sentinel Force, and Gideon. Taking a deep breath, he positioned himself into a combat stance and raised his knife.

“Fuck it” he said to himself. He took a deep breath and charged towards the man who towered over him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is divided into two parts! The next chapter will focus entirely on the fight between Mitchell and the man!  
> This man was actually part of the dream I had (as well as the fight scene). If you look on chapter 8 in the comments, I briefly explain my dream and how it relates to the extended story!!
> 
> I will try to update the story as much as possible now! I just got back to school and found out that I feel more motivated to write when I'm under pressure/in an academic environment. So expect more frequent updates!!
> 
>  
> 
> Questions/Comments/Concerns/Insults/Thoughts of love?? You know what to do :)
> 
> Take Care and Party Hard :0)


	10. Chapter 9 *Updated*

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mitchell and the BFG (Big Fugly Giant) face off

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all :0)
> 
> Here is another chapter! This part of the story was actually part of the dream I had a couple of days ago. To sum it up, I got my ass handed to me by a huge man...and then decided to write about it :D
> 
> I'd like to take this moment and wish SimpleWriter101 a happy birthday!!! I hope it's a fantastic one and filled with all kinds of happiness and love <3  
> Warning: Grammatical/Spelling errors, blood, and possibly slight OOC-ness
> 
> I hope you all enjoy

**(November 6, 2062. 13:10 hours)  
** As soon as he was close enough, Mitchell threw his knife high in the air and spun his body spun his body around the man charging at him, effectively dodging a knife thrust that would’ve been fatal. Mitchell smoothly spun around the taller figure and shot out his foot, kicking the man behind his fibular. The man instantly fell to his knee due to the sudden pressure, giving Mitchell the opportunity to catch the knife he threw in the air and deliver a fatal blow to the giant’s head. He was caught off guard when the man turned his upper body around and managed to grab onto the arm that was about to deliver the blow. His left arm was now caught in the tight grip of a huge hand. As the grip tightened Mitchell swore he could hear the wires and gadgets in his prosthetic arm groan under the stress and pressure. Before he could try to kick the man again, he felt the man pull him towards him and deliver a hard punch right in the eye, causing the smaller soldier to stumble backwards. Mitchell threw a hard kick right in the man’s face, forcing his grip on the prosthetic arm the losen. With his arm now free, Mitchell crawled backwards and pressed himself against the wall. He looked down and saw that he had the knife still in his hand. He stood up and ran back towards his enemy, who was just starting to get back on his feet. Mitchell noticed a huge fist getting ready to shoot in his direction and land right onto his stomach, so he improvised. He ran towards his target and rolled forward on the ground, effectively dodging the blow. Once he was in the clear, he angled his body around and thrust the knife deep into the man’s knee. A grunt could be heard that confirmed that the knife reached it’s intended target. Mitchell quickly pulled the knife out and stood back into a combat stance in front of the bleeding man. He was surprised by how quickly the man’s recovered and before he knew it, he found himself flying through the air and painfully connecting with a wall. The impact took Mitchell’s breath away and made stars appear in his vision. He shook them off and was greeted by two large hands grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, forcing him into a standing position. Before Mitchell could regain his balance, he was forcefully dragged away from the wall and thrown through a glass window. He landed on the wooden porch outside and angled his body back into a standing position. As he stood up, he could feel fresh cuts sting his face, overlapping his old wounds. Taking a deep breath, he stood up and decided to put the knife away, saving it for the right moment...whenever that was. He looked up and was greeted by a huge piece of wood connecting right into his face, causing him to lose balance and fall backwards onto his already throbbing back. A large boot came out of nowhere and painfully kicked him right in his hip, causing him to roll onto his side. The kicks became more violent and painful, forcing Mitchell to roll up into a fetal position in a weak attempt to absorb the heavy blows. The kicks would sometimes hit his ribs, causing them to crack or break at the sudden weight and strength of the foot. There were a couple of kicks that were so painful that Mitchell actually yelped in pain and felt tears roll down his eyes. Unable to stand the pain, Mitchell managed to catch the retreating foot again and twisted it with all of his might. As soon as he heard a sickening crack, he continued to twist the foot until he was sure that the foot did a 360. Once that task was done, he kicked his own foot so that it hit the man right in the gut. As soon as the man clumsy stumbled backwards, Mitchell pulled himself into a standing position and readied himself for another attack, one arm wrapped around his midsection. The growled loudly and charged towards the smaller man with all of his speed. Mitchell felt himself being lifted off his feet and pushed into a wooden column. His entire back roared with pain at the connection, causing his vision to swim. He was thrown over the man’s shoulders and slammed onto the dirty ground. Mitchell tried to get up but he found himself being straddled by the tall figure and felt painful punches make their way across his face. Every punch caused stars to dance across his vision, blood to pool up in his mouth, and his breaths to become much more difficult. Deciding that he’s had enough, he raised his right hand and caught the fist that would’ve hit him square in the eye. Ignoring the screams of pain erupting from his ribs, he pushed himself upwards and head butted the man, forcing him off of his wounded body. He grabbed the knife he kept hid and made an attempt to stab the man. He hand was once again intercepted and, this time, was crushed by the larger hand. Mitchell could hear all of the gears and wires snap and break underneath the plastic arm, sending painful jolts to electric energy across his entire arm. He couldn’t suppress the loud cry of pain and the tears that blurred his vision. Dizzy from the pain, he pulled his left arm away from the strong grip and used his flesh hand to punch the man with all of his might. When he heard a crunch, he slid underneath the man’s legs and made a move to stand up. Suddenly, an enormous wave of pain entered his left shoulder.

He turned around and saw the bigger knife embedded in the back of his left shoulder, the tip of the knife sticking out of the front of his shoulder. He tried to grab it but the knife suddenly twisted in his shoulder, forcing him to his knees. He felt extremely dizzy and faint, but he refused to pass out. As the knife was pulled out of his shoulder, Mitchell felt faint and nearly passed out on the spot: he still managed to suppress that feeling and forced new energy to flow through his body. He then felt two calloused, bloody, and large hands grab both of his shoulders and force him to turn around. Before he could fully comprehend what was going on, he felt a sharp and quick pain enter his stomach. All of the battle sounds seemed to fade away and his vision tunneled to the large knife embedded deep into his stomach, blood already spreading across his stomach and dripping on the ground. He weakly looked up at the taller man and tried to clear his vision, failing to do so. The knife was pulled viciously out of his stomach and Mitchell crumpled to the ground, his hand flesh hand immediately applying pressure to the wound. Breathing became more of a chore and it now took a lot of energy: that, added onto his hazy vision, made staying awake too hard. He was about to succub to unconsciouness when he noticed something that woke him up completely.

He could make out the blurry figure of the giant stomping away from him and towards a soldier that looked like they were a part of Sentinel. Despite the hazy vision, Mitchell could tell that the other soldier was holding a gun and firing at the giant man. Suddenly, the man reached the Sentinel soldier, grabbed them by their throat, and threw them onto the ground. The man then proceeded to hit and kick the soldier with relentless force until the Sentinel soldier went completely limp, probably falling unconscious due to the blows. The enemy looked like he was about to raise his giant boot and slam it onto the soldier's skull, now grabbing Mitchell's worry.  
“No” Mitchell whispered weakly while still remaining on the ground.  
With new found energy, Mitchell pulled himself up and ran (or rather stumbled) with all of his speed towards the giant. As soon as he was close enough, he put all of his weight onto his left side and shoved the giant away from the fallen soldier. The enemy was hit by Mitchell so hard that he stumbled backwards and fell against a weak wooden door a couple of feet away from where Mitchell and the unconscious soldier were. The door collapsed underneath his weight and caused the enemy to fall backwards into a building. Satisfied that he was no longer a threat for the time being, Mitchell looked down and tried to make out the face of the fallen soldier. After a few blurry seconds, Mitchell realized that the soldier he just save was Gideon. 

"Shit," Mitchell whispered while gingerly kneeling down next to his friend, "Gideon! Wake up." Mitchell shook his friend's shoulders and received no response. He kept trying, this time raising his voice. As he tried to wake his friend, Mitchell took in the cuts and bruises that were on Gideon's face. Thankfully, they didn't look that serious: painful, but not serious. It still worried him how long it was taking his friend to wake up, considering that he's been through worse. Maybe he missed an injury that was hidden. "Gideon, come on man! You gotta wake up!! I mean for fuck's sake, I'm the one who got stabbed twice and nearly beaten to death...you're suppose to be carrying me away from here. Gideon?!" Despite his attempts, Gideon refused to wake up. "Fucking Christ, Gideon!!!! I need you to wake up!! I can't carry you out of here and I want you to be safe!!! WAKE UP! Please!!!"  
Knowing that the man was out cold, or possibly worse, Mitchell stopped his attempts and looked over his shoulder. He could see the enemy slowly standing up from where he fell in the building, this time with more anger and venom in his eyes. Mitchell instantly stood up, standing protectively over his fallen friend, and positioned himself into a combat stance, unaware of how much of his blood now stained his friend's clothes and armor. The giant stood up almost to his full height and held the bloody knife used to impale Mitchell tightly in his hand. Mitchell lost his knife during the first fight, so he simply raised his only usable hand in a defensive stance. There was no way in hell that monster was going to hurt Gideon again...this ended now.  
As soon as the giant ran up to him, Mitchell used all of his strength and bent down so the enemy wouldn't be able to grab him. Mitchell then lifted himself back into a standing position, causing the giant to flip right over his shoulder and land on his back. However, Mitchell felt himself being pulled down towards the ground as well. Once he was on the ground, he grabbed the giant and they began to roll away from Gideon and the head further up the main road where the bodies of Johnson's army laid on the ground. Deciding that they were a far distance away from Gideon, Mitchell rolled one last time and ended up straddling the giant. He raised his flesh hand and began to mercilessly hit the man's face until he sprained his wrist. Every punch he threw was for the soldiers that died back in the apartment complex, for the children Johnson abducted, and for his friend who was currently lying in the middle of the road unconscious. The skin on his knuckles began to tear, causing more blood to coat his already blood soaked hands. Having enough, Mitchell stopped punching the man's face and reached for the large knife that was discarded while they were rolling. 

Without thinking, Mitchell raised the blood covered knife and stabbed the giant right in the throat. He then quickly and smoothly dragged the knife across the man’s throat, not once wincing at the sound of tissue and muscle tearing apart. He drowned out the wet choking sounds that came out of the dying man’s throat. He ignored the warm blood that coated his entire right arm and face. A wet gurgle finally confirmed that the enemy was gone forever. Satisfied beyond belief that the man was officially dead, Mitchell removed the knife from his throat and began to gasp for air: his wounds and fading energy finally made themselves known. Without realizing it, he fell limply to the side, his outstretched left arm cushioning his head. His eyes traveled down to the blood that was slowly gathering around his hip, creating a long and wide pool. The throb in his left shoulder began to fade, as well as his hearing and sight.

Without even realizing it, he passed out from the blood loss, pain, exhaustion, and emotional strain that built up the past couple of hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may change/add more to this chapter! It seems a bit rushed and that is because I just wanted to get down what I remember from my dream onto paper. Now that I have, I may decide to add more/less to make it more dramatic and intense.
> 
> Questions/Comments/Concerns/Thoughts of love?? Feel free to write em' all down :)
> 
> Take Care and Party Hard :0)


	11. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gideon wakes up to the aftermath of the battle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all :0)
> 
> Here is another chapter!!! I was on a role with the last chapter and decided to continue writing another chapter for this story.  
> Once again: Happy Birthday SimpleWriter101!!! Here's a second update/treat for your birthday :D
> 
> Warning: Grammatical/Spelling errors, blood, and possibly slight OOC-ness
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!!

**(November 6, 2062. 14:00 hours)**  
Gideon slowly woke to two things: an obnoxious headache and someone desperately shaking his left shoulder. The motions only aggravated his head even more and he was about to curse the fucker that didn’t seem to stop the shaking, when he suddenly heard a small, worried voice enter his still foggy brain.  
“Wake up! Gideon!!! You told me that you were going to be okay! Please, wake up!!”  
Gideon automatically identified the voice as Colin’s and it worried him how desperate and worried the kid sounded. After a couple of seconds, Gideon forced his eyes open and found himself staring at brown eyes and raven hair. Gideon slowly sat up so that he was at an eye-level with the little kid. He shook off the last remnants of sleep and stared at the little boy. Unsure of what he should say, Gideon looked around for a couple of seconds before speaking up.  
“See? I told you I’d be okay.”  
As soon as he finished his snarky remark, Gideon felt Colin lunge at him and wrap his small arms around his neck. Gideon straightened up and wrapped both of his arms around the smaller frame, his hold tighter than it has been in previous hugs. He closed his eyes and took in the beautiful fact that Colin was alive and safe despite all of the chaos around them. However, Gideon noticed that the sounds of gunfire and screams never seemed to appear.  
‘Either I’m actually dead and this is heaven, or we won.’  
After hugging and shushing the boy for a couple more seconds, Gideon let go of Colin to inspect his surroundings.

The first thing he saw was the amount of bodies that littered the main road that he was sitting on. All of the bodies belonged to Johnson’s army, each one of them wearing green and white (again, an awkward combination). He looked up at the sky and realized that the sun was still shining as bright as it had been when the battle began. He closed his eyes and tried to remember what the actual fuck happened to him. The last thing he remembered was seeing a huge, ripped giant come charging at him at full speed.  
‘That’s right,’ Gideon remembered, ‘the fucking bastard was attacking a soldier.’  
He looked at his slightly cracked watch and noticed that it was now 14:00 hours. When he shot at the man, it was 13:40 hours.  
‘I was out for twenty minutes’ he silently deducted. ‘Huh. Not bad.’  
There was a slightly cracked mirror behind him, so he used that opportunity to take in his wounds. All things considered, they actually weren’t that bad. Mostly cuts and bruises, one bruise in particular that was kind of nasty, but he seemed okay: he could feel his arms and legs, didn’t feel nauseous, or faint. He looked down at his stomach and noticed a huge blotch of red blood staining his armor and shirt. His hands instantly went up to the red area and he was surprised when he didn’t feel any pain once he put pressure on the red stain. From the corner of his eye, he could see a bloody and smudged handprint on his left bicep. Again, he didn’t feel any pain around that area.  
‘Must not be mine’  
He smiled to himself with pride and looked at Colin, only to see that his eyes were focused on something else.  
“Colin,” he quietly said, “what’s wrong?” Colin didn’t seem to hear him, so Gideon tried again. “Mate, you’re kind of scaring me here. Are you okay?”  
Colin briefly continued to stare into the distance before he lifted a shaky finger and pointed to Gideon’s right. Colin said one shaky name that instantly froze Gideon’s world.  
“Mitchell…”  
Finally processing the name, Gideon slowly looked in the direction Colin was pointing in and nearly threw up at the sight. A couple of yards away from where he was sitting was a bloody and broken Mitchell lying on his side facing Gideon. His left arm was acting as a cushion for his blood-covered head, and there was a significant red dot right on his stomach.  
“Oh no” Gideon said with anguish and worry.

He quickly stood up, ignoring how his world briefly tilted at the sudden movement, and ran towards his fallen friend. As he approached his friend, he saw big specks of blood that created a trail that led towards his friend. Gideon prayed that all of that blood wasn’t his. Unfortunately, his fears were confirmed once he kneeled next to his friend. The first thing that caught his eyes were the two stab wounds in his friend’s left shoulder and stomach, causing him to lose too much blood and pool up around him. Gideon instantly rolled his friend onto his back and applied pressure to the wound on his stomach, which was still bleeding. He slightly jumped with surprise when Mitchell jolted awake and hissed in pain at the pressure on his wound. Gideon immediately shushed him.  
“Easy Mitchell. Just stay still, okay? I’ve got you.”  
Mitchell looked up at his friend with glassy eyes and smiled, exposing his blood-stained teeth that coated his usually white teeth.  
“You’re… okay…”  he slowly breathed out.  
“Don’t talk” Gideon instantly shot back. “Of course I’m okay. Why would you think th-”  
“The...B...F...G...was...about...to...kill...you…”  
“What did I just say?” Once Gideon was sure Mitchell would stay quiet, he continued. “BFG? What are you talking about? Last time I heard that phrase was when you and I encountered a giant a couple of months...ago.”  
Gideon froze at the realization. Four months ago, Mitchell and Gideon were called to a meeting with Kingpin and Ilona. When they arrived at the meeting room, there was this enormous man that almost towered over them both. The man was extremely polite and kind, and he said that his nickname was, “The BFG: Big Friendly Giant.” Snapping back to reality, Gideon looked down at Mitchell.  
“Mate, this guy wasn’t exactly friendly.”  
“...the...F...now...stands...for...Fugly.”  
Gideon let out a small laugh at the joke, but his light mood instantly faded when he noticed Mitchell was struggling to stay awake. Gideon looked around and noticed that no Sentinel soldiers were around to assist him with Mitchell. He couldn’t carry Mitchell, but he couldn’t leave him here alone either. After considering his options, Gideon looked back at Mitchell and put more pressure onto the wound, waking him wake up completely for a second.  
“Mitchell,” he quietly said, “I need to get you out of here right now. I’m going to stand you up and we’re going to head back into town where the clinic is, okay? Once you’re on your feet, I need you to try and walk. I’ll support you, but I can’t carry you there. Do you copy?”  
Mitchell weakly nodded and raised his right, bloody hand upwards. Gideon took his hand and stood up, preparing to lift his friend up. The task was more difficult than he planned because both of their hands were coated with fresh blood and were now slippery, weakening his grip on his friend’s hand. He used his other hand and wrapped it around his friend’s wrist, eliciting a cry of pain from his friend’s mouth.  
“I’m sorry” Gideon softly said. “You ready? One...two..three...now!”  
He pulled Mitchell up and took all of his weight. The movements now caused fresh waves of blood to flow out of his stomach and shoulder wound. Gideon needed Mitchell to stop the bleeding as soon as possible before he bled to death. Mitchell was about to grab Mitchell’s prosthetic arm and bring it up to the wound, but he stopped when he took in the crushed and destroyed hand. That option was now out of the question. The only option left was to use Mitchell’s flesh hand to stop the bleeding. The main problem with that situation was that if he put Mitchell’s left arm around his shoulder, it would agitate the shoulder wound and put Mitchell in a good amount of pain. He hated that he would be putting his friend in even more pain, but he couldn’t afford to have Mitchell bleed to death. Making up his mind, Gideon rushed over to his friend’s left side, lifted his arm, and slowly put it around his shoulder. As he was doing so, he could hear a cry of pain coming from Mitchell. He then reached for Mitchell’s right hand and pressed it against the still bleeding wound. He looked at his friend’s face and saw that his eyes were closed and tears began to make their way down his cheek.  
“I’ve got you” he whispered into his friend’s ear. “It’s okay. Just stay with me, okay?”  
Mitchell gave him a weak and quick nod, signaling Gideon to move forward with him towards the clinic. As they were walking away, Gideon pulled out his handgun and put three bullets in the giant's skull, making sure that he would stay dead.  
"Fucking bastard" he bitterly said.

Their journey to the clinic was extremely slow and filled with tension. Gideon could hear the strain and wetness Mitchell’s breathing held. At first, Gideon and Mitchell were walking pretty well together, both sturdy and quick. However, one minute later, Mitchell began to move slower and Gideon ended up taking more of his weight than before. Throughout the journey, Gideon quietly encouraged Mitchell to keep moving forward.  
“Hang in there Mitchell. We’re almost there. You’re doing fantastic! Stay with me. I'm right here.”

He stopped his chanting when he realized that not only was he taking all of Mitchell’s weight now, but also that Mitchell’s feet were dragging across the dirt ground.  
“Mitchell?” Gideon lowered his head so that it could see Mitchell’s and, to his slight horror, he saw that Mitchell’s eyes were closed. “Mitchell?!”  
He half carried and half dragged Mitchell to a wooden porch and lowered him onto it. He positioned his friend’s body so that it was in a sitting position and leaning against a wooden column. Gideon proceeded to cup Mitchell’s neck with both of his now blood soaked hands, and halt his friend’s lolling head. He then decided to gently tap his face in an attempt to wake him up.  
“Come on Mitchell,” he quietly said, “wake up. Mitchell? Can you hear me? Hey, Mitchell?”  
After a couple of slaps, he was greeted by two blue eyes staring at him. Gideon smiled and slowly traced his bloody hand across the side of Mitchell’s face, leaving a fresh smudge of blood on his already blood and cut-covered face.  
“Hurts…” Mitchell breathed out.  
“I know I know” Gideon quietly replied, trying to provide his friend with some comfort. “I’ve got you. Just stay with me, okay? We’re almost there!” He took Mitchell’s right hand and placed it on top of the wound, and then proceeded to place his own hand on top of his. The pressure caused Mitchell to yelp in pain, but Gideon still remained calm. “You’ve made it this far, just try to hang on a little bit more, okay? Please Mitchell, I can't do this by myself.”  
A weak nod was his response. Gideon quickly stood up, threw his friend’s left arm over his shoulder, and continued their slow journey to the clinic.

Gideon himself almost collapsed with joy when he saw the clinic. Mitchell’s movements continued to decline, as well as his health. He was now completely pale and barely conscious, a thin trail of blood following him and Gideon. Gideon repositioned Mitchell’s arm and weight and moved as quickly as he could towards the clinic. Once they arrived on the porch, Mitchell finally succumbed to unconsciousness and slumped against Gideon, who was struggling keeping his friend upwards. Gideon laid his friend down on the porch, gently grabbed his flesh hand, and placed it onto the stomach wound. He then, once again, proceeded to place his own hand on top of his friend's hand not only to help stop the bleeding, but to also provide the man with some comfort. Occasionally, a weak moan would escape his friend's mouth: when that happened, Gideon would gently squeeze the hand in his and whisper words of comfort. When he looked up at the door, he saw Joe, Anderson, and Grayson all staring down at the pair with worry and horror. They all took in the Private’s condition and the Commander’s look of desperation and heartbreak. They took in the amount of blood that covered both of them and the touching scene of Gideon holding Mitchell’s hand...on top of a profusely bleeding stomach wound.  
Gideon couldn’t find the right words, so when his eyes came into contact with Anderson’s, he quietly said the first thing that popped into his head.

“He’s dying…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger :D
> 
> I think there will be only two or three more chapters left (I'm not quite sure yet.) I hope you all enjoyed and please feel free ask/tell me anything that comes up!!
> 
> Questions/Comments/Concerns/Insults/Thoughts of love?? You know what to do!
> 
> Take Care and Party Hard :0)


	12. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Gideon watches over Mitchell, he does two things he hasn't done in an EXTREMELY long time: beg and sing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all :0)
> 
> Here is another chapter! This is probably the most emotional chapter for Gideon and I wanted to add something special to it. This idea actually came from a personal story of mine. It's nothing bad at all, but I'm not going to say what actually happened that night. Anywho, I don't own this song or Pearl Jam!!! Please feel free to check out this unbelievably beautiful and almost heartbreaking song :0) It really is a unique and touching work of art.
> 
> Warning: Grammatical/Spelling errors and possibly slight OOC-ness
> 
> I hope you all enjoy!!

**(November 9, 2062. 03:00 Hours)  
** As soon as Grayson, Anderson, and Joe saw the two bloody soldiers, they all immediately jumped right into action. While Gideon only had cuts and bruises from the beatdown he received, Mitchell was, according to Joe, “On the brink of death.” Because Mitchell didn’t give his body the chance to heal after the bomb attack, the injuries he received during the most recent battle were more difficult to treat. The shrapnel wound from the apartment attack plus the new shoulder wound, as well as wounds from the small shrapnel from the grenade as well as large knife, almost made Mitchell bleed to death. His right hand, that was previously burned, now was wrapped in a cotton medical stretch bandage due to the numerous punches he threw at the now dead giant. Fresh cuts and bruises overlapped his previously healing facial wounds from October. When they took off Mitchell’s shirt, Joe and Anderson gagged at how black, blue, and purple his entire chest was: Joe deducted that Mitchell broke four of his ribs, cracked two of them, and bruised six of them. If they looked closely, they could see faint outlines of boot marks. They tightly wrapped the Private’s ribs and applied ice onto the still swelling chest. One of the broken ribs punctured his lung and caused blood to pool up in the Private’s lungs and spurt out of his mouth. That, plus the main stab wound, were the main sources of blood pooling in his mouth, causing him to lose even more blood. At one point during the day, Mitchell began to choke on his own blood, horrifying Gideon and his fellow soldiers. They had to shove an intubator down the Private's throat not only to remove all of the blood in his lungs, but also to aid him with breathing. By the time they patched Mitchell up (to the best of their abilities), they laid him on the hospital bed he occupied since he first arrived in the town, put him on two IVs that provided him with blood and nutrients, and attached a portable oxygen mask to his face to help his breathing. That all was three days ago.

A completely healed Gideon now sat by his friend’s bedside at three in the morning. Right after his own minor wounds were treated and he had the chance to clean himself up, he reunited asked Grayson if he knew why Mitchell didn’t meet up with them. According to Grayson, he and his squad were waiting for the Private’s arrival during the battle, but then an extremely tall and built man appeared out of nowhere and took down almost half of his squad. He didn’t want to risk losing any more troops so he made them all evacuate to another building not far from their original location. They then helped the remaining Sentinel troops, now composed of fifteen soldiers, bury their fellow soldier’s bodies. They left the town with the decision on what to do with the bodies of Johnson’s army: they decided to burn them all. As townsfolk and Sentinel soldiers piled up the dead bodies for the fire, Gideon couldn’t help but feel slightly ill at how much blood stained the once completely brown dirt road. Once all of the bodies were burned, and the smell of flesh finally left the air, Gideon reunited with Colin and they spent the rest of the day together, providing each other with comfort and reassurance following recent events. Gideon stayed over at the kid’s place for the next two nights because he wanted to leave as much space for any injured Sentinel soldiers. Thankfully, only four other soldiers were injured, but their conditions weren’t as serious as Mitchell’s. This was the first night he got to spend in the hospital next to Mitchell. Before visiting Mitchell, Gideon had absolutely zero trouble falling asleep: despite witnessing his friend bleed out in front of his eyes, he actually got plenty of sleep. Despite the worst circumstances, Gideon usually got a healthy amount of sleep. The rare sleepless nights occurred when he knew something important was about to come: something good or bad. Tonight was one of those nights...except this time, for the first time, he had no idea what the outcome would be. All he knew was that this uncertain feeling related to Mitchell’s condition. Now alone in the clinic, a fully awake Gideon kept his strong vigil over his friend.  
To his relief, the oxygen mask was now replaced with a portable nasal cannula, indicating that Mitchell could now properly breath on his own. The facial wounds slowly lost their gruesome and repulsive color, and now were gentler shades of red and blue. All in all, Mitchell seemed to be on the right track...but that still didn’t mean that he was out of the woods just yet. He was still extremely pale, suffering from his old and new wounds, and still had yet to wake up. And because Gideon was experiencing his sleepless nights, he didn’t want to get his hopes up. He looked at the sleeping man and began to quietly scold  him.

“You fucking twat, I told you that you weren’t in any condition to fight! Now look at us: you’re lying on the same damn bed while I have to stay up to keep an eye on you. You stupid, selfless sod...why did you have to try to be the hero again? Mars told me about how you saved my life while I was down… he told me that you put yourself in even more danger, while you were bleeding out from a stab wound, for me. You’re probably expecting me to say, ‘I owe you my life,’ or, ‘Thank you.’ Truth is...I can’t. Not because I’m not grateful for what you did, but because I’d be thanking you for putting yourself in harms way to protect me. I’d be thanking you for getting almost permanently paralyzed trying to rescue children. I’d be thanking you for nearly bleeding to death because you were trying to protect the townsfolk, as well as fellow soldiers. If I thanked you, I would be thanking you for not only saving my own, as well others’, life, but also for getting hurt...and believe me, I can’t stand seeing people I care about hurting.” By this point, Gideon could feel the sting of tears in his eyes. He quickly blinked them away and continued. “So listen to me carefully,” he whispered right into the man’s ear, “you’re going to pull through. You’re going to hang in there for me, okay? And when, not if, you wake up, you’re going to recover with flying colors and continue to annoy the living shit out of me like you always do. Do all this and I’ll consider actually thanking you for saving my life…” A brief pause. “Please Mitchell...I can’t do this without you. We’ve been through too much together and I’ll be damned if everything ends tonight. I’ve never begged in my entire life, but you’re the only exception. You need to wake up and tell me that you’re okay...or at least show me! Sentinel needs you...fucking hell, I need you!! Please don't leave me...”

Until now, Gideon didn’t realize that he was holding his friend’s flesh hand in both of his own. When he finished his pleas that would probably never reach his friend, he slowly let go of the hand in his and lowered it back onto the bed. Unsure of what to do now, Gideon glanced across the clinic. His eyes found a guitar that was lit under the moonlight and stared at it for a second.  
‘I’m going to regret this’ he thought.  
He stood up, grabbed the guitar, and returned to Mitchell’s side. After tuning the instrument, Gideon cleared his throat and awkwardly introduced a song.  
“Alrighty, this is the only time you’re going to hear me sing and play any instrument.” He glanced down at the strings and fretboard, placing his fingers into the proper positions, before looking back at Mitchell. “My dad used to sing this to me when I was a little kid: legend has it that I never got enough of song after the first time I heard it as an infant. As I got older, the lyrics became more meaningful to me and eventually embedded themselves into my brain. I’ve carried this song with me since I was a kid, yet never performed for anyone. Actually, the only person I performed this song for was my dad right before he passed away...he was originally the only person who heard me sing and play guitar. Like I said before, you’re the only exception.” He cleared his throat, straightened his body, and began to play the song “Just Breathe.” After the right amount of notes, he began to quietly sing.

“Yes, I understand that every life must end, uh-huh  
As we sit alone, I know someday we must go, uh-huh  
Oh I'm a lucky man, to count on both hands the ones I love  
Some folks just have one, yeah, others, they've got none

Stay with me...  
Let's just breathe...

Practiced all my sins, never gonna let me win, uh-huh  
Under everything, just another human being, uh-huh  
I don't wanna hurt, there's so much in this world to make me bleed

Stay with me  
You're all I see...

Did I say that I need you?  
Did I say that I want you?  
Oh, if I didn't I'm a fool you see  
No one knows this more than me

As I come clean...  
I wonder everyday, as I look upon your face, uh-huh  
Everything you gave  
And nothing you would save, oh no

Nothing you would take  
Everything you gave...

Did I say that I need you?  
Oh, did I say that I want you?  
Oh, if I didn't I'm a fool you see  
No one knows this more than me  
And I come clean, ah...

Nothing you would take  
Everything you gave  
Hold me til I die…”  
“Meet you on the other side” a weak voice finished.

Gideon almost dropped the guitar out of shock and snapped his head to the man lying on the bed. Mitchell’s eyes were at half mast and were slightly out of focus. The smile he put on for Gideon was extremely light and weak, but it meant everything to Gideon. He gently placed the guitar against the wall and leaned forward so he could be closer to his friend. He unconsciously began to run his fingers through Mitchell’s brown hair. Gideon knew he probably should let Mitchell rest after all of the crap he’s been through, but he also needed to make sure that Mitchell was alright.

“You heard me?”  
“Yeah” Mitchell weakly whispered. “You’ve got a decent voice.”  
“Tell anyone about this a-”  
“You’ll kill me?”  
“You know it.” Gideon swallowed and continued. “You don’t know how happy I am to see you awake right now. I...God Mitchell...it was too close.”  
“...So I guess I used up five of my nine lives now?”  
Gideon let out a small laugh. “You could say that. If you decide to use up another of your lives, I’ll personally take away another, understood?”  
“Copy. I’m sorry I didn’t listen...but I don’t regret saving you. I never will regret it…”  
“Alright Mitchell, we’ll continue this cliche fest once you’re fully awake and healed up, okay?”  
Mitchell nodded and slid his eyes shut. “Stay with me...” With that, he became oblivious of the world again.

After a couple of silent moments, once the Commander was sure his friend was asleep, he leaned forward, cupped the side of Mitchell's head, and pressed a gentle kiss on Mitchell’s forehead. He let his lips remain on the Private’s head for a couple of seconds and closed his eyes, overwhelmed with relief that his friend woke up and was responsive. He finally removed his lips from the healing forehead and moved away from the bed. He then kicked off his boots, pushed an empty hospital bed right next to Mitchell’s, and lied down next to Mitchell. To his surprise, Mitchell unconsciously moved his head so that it was now resting on Gideon’s shoulder and pressed himself closer to Gideon. The Commander moved his head so that it was now firmly pressed against his friend’s forehead. He then rested his left arm around Mitchell’s stomach. His right hand found it's way back into Mitchell's brown hair and slowly began to run his fingers through the smooth mop, providing himself, as well as the sleeping Private, with comfort and reassurance that everything will be okay. Now in a comfortable position, Gideon closed his eyes and held Mitchell in his arms, finally feeling content at last. Before he drifted off to sleep, he sang one last section of the song to his sleeping friend, as well as himself.

“Let’s just breathe…”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said earlier, I don't own the song or Pearl Jam! All credit goes to the writers of the song :D
> 
> I think there will only be one or two more chapters left before I'm done with this story! Because I've used up all of my original ideas, I don't think I'll be writing anymore stories for a while. Not only are finals coming up, but I also don't want to force out horrible ideas/stories just for the sake of writing. I want to write good stories and take my time with them...even if it means taking a couple of days or weeks off in order to conjure up new ideas! Until then, I'll be reading all of the COD stories and whatever you all publish/recommend!!!
> 
> Questions/Comments/Concerns/Insults/Thoughts of love?? You know what to do!!!
> 
> Take Care and Party Hard :0)


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